Slumville Sunrise
by ObscureAlternatives
Summary: Fresh out of jail, Tim Shepard is trying to rebuild his life while looking to get even with the people that set him up. Will he care who gets hurt in the process or is anyone fair game if it means he gets what he wants?
1. Slumville Sunrise

A/N: The story takes place in the time between the events of 'The Outsiders' and 'That was Then, This is Now'. A lot of the characters also appear in my other story, Messed Up Kids, but you don't need to have read that for this to make sense.

'The Outsiders' / 'That was Then, This is Now' and any characters / places you recognise from them belong to SE Hinton, only the OC's and my story are mine.

Slumville Sunrise is a song by Jake Bugg.

So anyway, here's the first chapter – thanks for reading and I'd love to know what you think. x

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><p><strong>Slumville Sunrise<strong>

Friday 7th April 1967

Tim woke up with a start. It was too quiet, he didn't know where he was but it seemed wrong. And then it all came back to him. He smiled, relaxing back against the pillows as he remembered where he was – home.

It was the first time he had felt truly comfortable in a long while, it was good to be back in his own bed. It was even good to have Curly snoring across the room instead of his cell mate in the other bunk. No noise from other inmates shouting, no guards barking orders. No one to tell him what to do and where to be at every moment of the day and night, when to get up, control when the lights went on and off, when they could go in and out the cells. When things got too much he could just walk out the door and go someplace else if he needed to.

It was eighteen months since he'd last been here. He had spent the last year and a half at McAlester in the state penitentiary, fitted up by Wayne Myers and the River Kings. Tim had spent a lot of that time coming up with a million different ideas for ways to exact his revenge, but right now and for a few days at least he was just going to make the most of being at home in Tulsa, enjoy himself a little. There was no need to rush anything. When he did it, he would make sure he got it right and ensure that both of the Myers brothers suffered for setting him up.

It wasn't long though before the peace of the morning was disturbed by noises from across the room.

"Hey Tim, you awake?"

"Yeah Curly." Tim glanced across, seeing his brother grinning at him as he rubbed his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up.

"So what you going to do today? Go celebrate with the guys, or find yourself a girl or something?"

"Got to do some boring shit first, go check in with the parole officer, and officially say I'm back in town and living here and all. Guess I'll just take it from there, check in with the guys and such, take a look around town and figure out what's changed since I been gone."

"Can I come with you?"

"Not a chance, you got school today."

"Jesus Tim, since when did you care about me going to school? I can duck out for one day can't I?" Curly grumbled.

"Nope, not today kid. Don't need ma on my case one day in to being home. Tell you what though, I'll pick you up later, we can go have a few beers at Buck's and celebrate me getting out being as it's Friday night."

"Yeah ok," Curly moaned, ambling out of the room, Tim following him to the kitchen where Angela was already up and making herself breakfast.

"Anything there for me Angel?"

"Sure – if you give me a ride to school?" She suggested hopefully.

"No, I got places I need to be this morning but I can pick you up after."

"Oh, thanks but I'm going out."

"Who with?"

"Friends," she replied, the same time as Curly said "Bryon."

"Who the hell's Bryon?"

"My boyfriend, and don't you say nothing Tim, you haven't even been here so you don't get to tell me what to do."

Tim laughed as he looked at his sister who was glaring at both of her brothers. His headstrong sister definitely wasn't a little kid anymore and he knew it was pointless him trying to stop her doing anything, she was too much like him in that respect. "Yeah, alright, but if he gives you any trouble then you let me know, you hear."

xxxxxx

First on Tim's list was the meeting with his parole officer, he wanted to get it over and done with, make sure he was working on meeting all the conditions of his release - he had no wish to go back to McAlester any time soon, or at all, if he could avoid it. So it was only just after nine when he drove down the Ribbon, enjoying the feeling of familiarity with his surroundings. A few things had changed. A couple of stores closed down and a couple more with different names, the boxing club boarded up with 'For Sale' signs on the outside. But most things looked pretty much how he had remembered them.

Not long after Tim found himself outside the police station, looking for the entrance to the parole office in the attached building. Just being near the place made him think of the last time he had been there, taken from the police cells for his trial in the court-house down the block.

The sentence had been much longer than he had expected. One to three years, with the possibility of parole before the three years. The court room had been busy, even his mother had come down to hear him get sentenced and had sat there crying into Angela's shoulder at everything they said about him, like she actually gave a damn about what happened to him – the only thing she would miss him for was money. Angela had done her best to look like she didn't care, but he knew she was upset, especially as Curly was in the reformatory for a few more months so she would be stuck at home without either of them to turn to for help.

Sat behind them had been Ryan Lang. Tim hadn't known if he exactly trusted him, but there was no one else who might be able to keep things going while he was away, although once Curly was out Tim knew his brother would do what he could to protect their interests.

Shaking himself, he brought his thoughts back to the present day and saw the brass plate on the wall indicating the parole office entrance. It was time to make a fresh start and get his life back on track. Pushing open the door, he took a seat in the waiting room, really hoping this wouldn't take too long.

Mr Barnes the parole officer was a short round man, and despite it being early in the year he was sweating profusely into his handkerchief in the small windowless room.

"So Mr Shepard, do you have any plans in mind now you are back in Tulsa?"

"Well, I need to find a job as soon as possible, to meet my release conditions. Can you help me with that?"

"Sure, sure." He continued to mop his brow as he spoke. "I see you were a fairly good student, you got your high school diploma despite all the trouble you were in and your poor attendance record. I see you also managed to stay out of too much trouble while you were in jail this time. That's all positive, means I should be able to match you up with something." He leafed through a pile of papers on his desk, "Hmm, I don't think there's anything too suitable on my list at the moment. You could do some of the jobs I'm sure, but you would probably find them pretty boring pretty quickly and I've a feeling that if you get bored you'd be more likely to re-offend. Let me have a think, speak to a few of my contacts. Come back next Friday morning and I'll more than likely have something sorted ready for you to start. You need to check in regularly anyway, in person or by phone, so that can be our next recorded contact time."

"Ok." Tim was frustrated. He had hoped – probably somewhat unrealistically he realised now - that it would all be sorted out today.

"Are you planning on keeping out of trouble this time Tim?"

Tim shrugged, "Yeah, that's the plan."

"Well, I'll do what I can to help you as long as you do. You might want to think about who you spend your time with though, don't get caught up with the same crowd you used to mix with. You do know that if you get sent down again for anything it will be a minimum of a year again, most probably longer given your history, no matter what it's for?"

"Yeah." He really could do without the lecture, but had learnt to tune things out, there were plenty of people down at McAlester who liked to lecture you on all sorts of stuff, and he'd learnt to put up with it, look like he was taking it all in while thinking about whatever else was more interesting at the time.

"And your other release conditions – you got a permanent address to live at?"

"Yeah, same as I told them at McAlester, staying at my mother's address."

"Ok, that's good; family can be a good support when you're trying to rebuild your life."

"Sure." Tim tried not to laugh; clearly the guy hadn't spent much time in the East side of town.

Finally the meeting came to an end and Tim headed out the building, heading towards Joe's diner down the street, realising he was in need of something to eat, plus it was barely past ten o'clock, way too early for a beer. As he approached he was surprised to find he was thinking about Leigh, how she had sat there waiting for him that day when he hadn't shown up, the day he had been arrested. He was being ridiculous he realised, that was all ancient history now, a different time, a different life even. He wasn't the same person anymore. Tim carried on walking, looking up as he heard a familiar voice.

"So how's things?" He turned to see Nick Miller, grinning broadly at him. "Didn't know you were back."

"Yeah, got out yesterday. Just been to see the parole officer."

"Really, that's tough man. You heading in here?"

"Yeah."

"Mind if I join you?"

"If you like. You not got to be in work?"

"Nah, got the late shift today, working twelve 'til ten. It's crazy busy up there, they're running loads of extra shifts this month."

Tim was surprised that Nick seemed so friendly. They hadn't spoken for a long while, he had fallen out with his former friend well before he went to jail and their last encounter had ended up in a fight. But as they sat in the diner, it seemed like there had never been any trouble between them. Tim asked Nick about people and events that had happened in town while he had been away. His main source of information had been rambling letters from Angela, (a good deal of which were taken up with what was happening with her school friends or moaning about their mother and step-father, rather than anything he wanted to hear) and phone calls home, where he would only get anything halfway useful if Curly was around.

"So, you heard about Wayne Myers then?" Nick asked with a grin.

"No?"

"Got arrested back last summer, only he took the option of the draft instead of jail – got sent out to Vietnam a couple of months after. Figured that might cheer you up some after all the history between you two."

"Yeah, I guess." Tim couldn't help but feel disappointed that he wouldn't be able to get his revenge in person. "What about the Kings then, they still going? His brother pick it up or something?"

"Kind of, but there's not so much gang trouble any more, a lot's changed in the last couple years I guess. Pete's still in town, pretty much sorted his life out, see him around the place sometimes. Quite a few guys either enlisted or got the draft, managed to avoid it so far myself though. Sylv's husband enlisted, shipped out a few months ago too. Can't really believe that my kid sister's married now and got a kid herself. I guess she's finally settled down some from what you remember." Nick laughed, but Tim was still distracted thinking about all the time he had wasted plotting revenge on Myers. Still, there was always Pete, he had probably been just as involved as Wayne in setting him up, plus he had always managed to rub Tim up the wrong way. So he could live with having to go after him instead of Wayne.

"You alright Tim?" He was brought back to reality by Nick's voice.

"Yeah, sorry, guess I'm still just tired." He wondered about asking Nick about Leigh, but figured there was no point, she had probably done what he'd told her to do by now and found herself someone better long ago.

"So who'd Sylvia marry then?"

"Same guy she was seeing when you went inside, Mike."

"That delivery driver from the department store?"

"Yeah, only like I said, he's in the Army now. Anyway, I guess I better get going, got a few things to do before I start work." Nick pulled himself to his feet.

"Sure. Look, I promised Curly we'd go for a few beers later, catch up with Ryan and the other guys if you want to come? Guess we'll go to Bucks – if it's still there?"

"Yeah, Buck's is still going strong, although the Dingo burnt down last year. Yeah, I might well join you if I get out of work on time, be good to unwind some after that shift."


	2. Man of Simple Pleasures

**Man of Simple Pleasures**

Saturday 8th April 1967

It was seven in the evening and, despite still feeling a little worse for wear, Tim was heading out into the mild evening with his brother. Tim had woken only a little before midday, his head pounding after the previous night's drinking. It seemed that after eighteen months away some things were going to take a little getting used to again.

Tim hadn't been all that keen when Nick had suggested the party to him late the night before. Until Nick had relayed to him that his fiancée, Judith, had a friend. A friend who might be keen to spend some time with Tim. Already that first evening he had picked up a random girl in Buck's, and he was looking forward to some more company again this evening. While he would maybe tone down the drinking tonight he definitely wasn't planning on shying away from any female company on offer - eighteen months had been a hell of a long time to miss out on a hell of a lot of things.

So Tim had dragged himself out of bed and swallowed down a few Aspirins, then drank a whole load of coffee while he tried to tune out his mother's droning voice as she told him in a hundred different ways how useless he was and why anything that had gone wrong in his absence was all his fault. Then when she had finally had enough and taken herself back to sit in front of the television, and because there was nothing much to eat in the house, he had sent Curly out to buy him a burger. Once he had eaten Tim had started to feel a little better, so he had showered and dressed, enjoying being back in his own clothes again, not prison issue. Consequently the two brothers were now walking towards the place, just a few blocks from their own home, Tim's hangover reduced to a dull ache behind his eyes.

"So that guy of Angels' - is he alright?"

"I guess, bit of a jerk sometimes, hangs around with his brother Mark mostly, thinks he's some kind of hot shot pool hustler but he ain't all that."

"And he treats her alright?"

"Yeah, I suppose, although I reckon Angela could take care of him herself if he didn't. Hey, let's cut up through here, then we can go across the lot, get there a bit quicker." Suggested Curly, hoping that Tim would change the subject. He really didn't want to keep talking about his sister's love life, it was just too creepy.

"Sure."

Crossing the street and cutting through the alleyway Tim realised where they were, spotted the house where he had spent some good times. Some real good times, along with one or two he wasn't proud of and had done a good job of trying to forget. There was a different car on the drive, the yard was neater and the house had been repainted. Some little kids were playing football in the yard while a woman he didn't recognise stood watching them from the porch. Things had definitely changed some since he'd been away. Being reminded of those times he started to think about that September day when he had got arrested, which in turn made him think about Myers.

"So tell me everything you know about Pete Myers then Curly, reckon I owe him for setting me up."

"Dunno Tim, don't exactly see an awful lot of him. Since Wayne left he's been real quiet. I mean you kind of hear he's still involved in stuff but he's all a lot more low-key about it than his brother ever was, goes pretty unnoticed. Guess otherwise he mostly just works, then when he's not he often goes down to Murphy's still."

"Where does he work then?" Tim asked, gesturing for Curly to pass him a smoke.

"Over at the power plant, some kind of guard. Why, what you planning Tim?"

"Not sure yet, need to get a whole lot more information before I decide that, only I've got to do something to get even. I've wasted a year and a half and had everything well and truly fucked up because of him and his brother. He seeing anybody?" Tim wanted to know as much as possible, was keen to find an angle to cause Pete some trouble.

"Uh-huh." Curly took a sideways glance across at his brother, hoping Tim didn't ask him to elaborate. He found himself wishing they were still talking about Angela as he wondered whether to go into any more detail or just let Tim find it out for himself. He wasn't entirely sure how Tim would take it so he really want to be the one who had to tell him if it could be avoided. But then on the other hand Tim would probably still be mad if he didn't tell him.

So Curly turned away, kept his head down and his hands in his pockets slouching a little as he walked, wanting to disappear into the background. Another thing Curly couldn't get used to the idea that since his last growth spurt he was taller and bigger built than his older brother and it felt wrong to him. He decided to light himself another cigarette while he waited for the next question.

He spend a lot of time at home or out with this broad?"

"How in hell would I know? It ain't like I socialise with him is it? Look Tim, you're not gonna drag her into are you?"

"Does it matter?"

"But Tim, she's…"

"She's hanging around Myers so she ain't going to be no better than him. Since when did you care about stuff like that? Tell me you're not going soft on me in your old age Curly."

"But Tim," Curly protested again, he knew he should tell his brother, because it just didn't seem fair to drag her into it. "It's just that he's dating..."

But before he could finish the sentence Tim had cut him off, his voice hard and determined. "Jesus Curly, I don't care if he's dating some fucking princess. I aim to get even with Myers and if anyone gets in the way, then it ain't my damn problem alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, ok." Curly mumbled, pleased to see they had reached their destination. After Tim's bad mood he definitely needed a beer. He'd forgotten how single-mindedly focused on things his brother could be. Curly pushed open the gate, and headed in through the open front door, glad to be putting some distance between the two of them. Tim had always been too intense, too serious and it seemed like jail had made him even worse with all that time on his hands to brood on everything that bothered him.

Tim meanwhile chatted with a few people he knew, still running into people for the first time, got caught up with Steve Randle and one of the Curtis brothers. He was getting sick of repeating that same conversation, about how good it must be to be back, endlessly. Finally he caught up to Ryan, who proceeded to try to talk him into some job he had planned.

"Listen Tim, I don't want to step on your toes and all now you're back, but we had this plan and we're gonna see it through, so you want to come in on it too?"

"Maybe, how about you fill me in on it, let me decide." Tim knew he was playing with fire, but extra cash was always useful and he would be especially careful, not do anything that would get him locked up again. Plus he needed to re-establish himself, Ryan Lang had got far too comfortable running things in his absence and probably wasn't looking to step down now Tim had returned.

They headed across the room to a quieter corner, Tim pretending not to see Nick's questioning look of him getting in with Ryan again. He listened while Ryan gave him the details, Tim figured it might be worth the effort for him and Curly to do, but didn't commit himself right then, decided maybe he ought to sleep on it as the conversation drifted to girls as it usually did with Ryan.

"So you like the look of anybody here tonight?" Ryan had asked with a grin.

"Yeah, there's some alright looking broads, Nick reckons there's some friend of Judith's he's gonna introduce me to though."

Ryan laughed, "Expect that'll be Maggie Ford, you remember her?"

"Don't think so." The name didn't sound familiar.

"Well you're in for an interesting night then Tim, she's probably just what you need after being away so long, from what I heard she's up for pretty much anything, so I won't keep you any longer. See you around."

Tim looked around, spotted Nick across the room and strolled across, glancing at the girls talking to Judith as he passed by, thinking he maybe had a good idea which one was Maggie after Ryan's comments.

"Hey."

"Evening. Just cause you're back in town, don't mean you got to get back in with Ryan and all that crap again."

"Yeah, ok but I didn't come here for a lecture, came here for a good time. Look, I got no wish to fall out with you again Nick so how about we just agree to disagree on that one? I won't tell you about none of it if you don't ask. Now, how about you introduce me to that mate of Judith's?"

Soon he was talking to the girl, Maggie. She was a few months older than him, had just turned twenty-one and she was nice looking, with reddish blonde hair and she was tall, although not quite as tall as Tim. She was friendly and seemed keen on being with him, the only downside seemed to be that she sure did like to talk a lot. It really wasn't helping Tim's headache. He had tried getting her more drinks, but that had just seemed to make her talk even more and even louder. She was busy telling him all about something dull that had happened to her at work when he realised he didn't want to listen anymore. But some action would still be good and he was feeling too lazy to find someone else, plus she did look good. So he had leant in and kissed her, which she seemed to like, and at least she wasn't talking at him now. It felt good to have a girl in his arms again, and pretty soon she was asking him if he wanted to go somewhere a little quieter with her.

"Sure darling, where you got in mind – someplace upstairs?"

"If you like, or you could come back to mine?"

"Ain't you got no family to object to me turning up?"

"Nah, there's only my kid sister and my grandma at home, and grandma's pretty deaf. And she's always in bed by nine o'clock, so you don't got to worry about anyone interrupting things."

xxxxxx

Monday 10th April 1967

It turned out that Tim had had a good night on Saturday. Judith's friend Maggie had been accommodating, and better company than he had anticipated, but he had still left after a couple of hours at her place, hadn't wanted to spend the whole night there and have her thinking it was anything real serious. Yet as he was leaving he had arranged to see her again and he was taking her out tonight.

But before that he was spending some time out gathering information. He had this week to fill before hopefully the parole officer had sorted something for him to meet his release conditions, and he aimed to make some good use of the free time.

First off Tim had driven past the Power Plant and checked out where Myers worked. Then he had managed to confirm via a mutual acquaintance that Pete still lived in the same place he and his brother had shared. Late in the afternoon he had parked a way down the street from the house and waited until the former River King had arrived home shortly after six. So now he knew his car, and he wanted details on his routine. So Tim sat and he waited. He still had an hour and a half to fill until he needed to pick up Maggie, so he would wait, see what Pete did with his evening, hoping he wasn't just going to sit in the house and not come out again.

Tim was relieved that he didn't have to just sit there all evening, waiting around not knowing what was going on was incredibly tedious. At around half past six Pete had re-emerged from the house and got into his car. Carefully Tim kept his distance, following as Pete drove for about ten minutes, stopping up outside a small run down looking bar, closer to Tim's own part of town. Assuming that Pete was just going drinking, Tim was surprised to see him run up the metal staircase to the side. Craning his neck a little, Tim could see Pete kissing whoever had answered the door before heading inside – so this was presumably where the girlfriend lived.

Deciding he had done enough for one day, Tim drove away. He didn't want to chance sitting outside here as well and definitely didn't need to get spotted on his first day of research. As he pulled away he saw a couple of kids heading along the street, recognising one of them as the boy who had called at their house for Angela on Saturday night.

So although he was still unsure of exactly how to get at Pete Tim knew he would come up with the right option, eventually. There were plenty to choose from, he wanted Pete to suffer as much as he had. It would be easy enough to set him up and frame him for something in the same way they had done for Tim, but he had an idea he wanted to do something more creative so that Myers would lose something important to him, be that his job, his girl or his home. Tim just needed to figure out which of these things would have the greatest impact.

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><p>AN: A huge thank you to everyone who read / reviewed / followed etc the first chapter. I hope you liked this one too :)  
>(Man of Simple Pleasures is by Kasabian).<p> 


	3. The Beginning of the Twist

**The Beginning of the Twist**

Wednesday 12th April 1967

When he had first agreed to meet Maggie Ford, Tim hadn't particularly been looking for a girlfriend, only a girl for the night, and Nick had been right when he'd told him she would put out for sure. Yet here he was nearly a week later still going about with her, following her into Jay's alongside Nick and Judith. It turned out she was alright company and it was a whole lot easier to call her up rather than go out and meet someone new every night. Tim didn't exactly want to make it a long-term arrangement but he figured a couple of weeks of fooling around with her while he got used to being home again would be fine.

Tim always checked out a place when he entered, the old habit of needing to watch his back ingrained in to him, especially after McAlester. He glanced quickly around the busy restaurant checking for potential sources of trouble. And it was then that he saw her. He was annoyed with himself at how his hand automatically dropped away from the girl beside him at the sight of Leigh sitting there in a booth with some guy opposite her. Tim wondered who she was with. He couldn't tell, could only see part of the back of the guy's head and the blue shade of his shirt because there were just too many people milling about at the tables in between.

Pulling himself together Tim followed his group to a table at the other side of the busy restaurant, although he was oddly pleased that Leigh remained in his line of sight. It was the first time he had seen her since he had been back in Tulsa, and after he had seen the boarded up gym and an unknown family living in her house he had thought she had maybe left town, or at least left their neighbourhood. No one had said a word about her to him since he'd got home. But then again there was no reason they should have done, the two of them had been over a long time ago. He put his arm around Maggie as he sat down and he wondered whether seeing the two of them together would bother Leigh even a little bit or whether she wouldn't even notice him.

xxxxxx

From her seat that day Leigh could see who was coming in and out of the diner and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the small group enter, before hastily looking away so she didn't make eye contact with him. She had heard Tim was home, while Sylvia had told her he was going around with Maggie. She also knew that it was inevitable that she would run in to him again at some point, but she hadn't expected that it would be so soon. And not in here on what looked like a double date set up by her best friend's brother. He looked just the same as she remembered, aside from his dark hair being shorter, growing from the prison cut and no longer greased back. And she thought he was still just as attractive in that cool untouchable fashion that had first made her notice him.

Seeing Tim here caused all the unpleasant memories of the last time she had seen him to resurface. It had been the last time they had spoken to each other, that Saturday in the November. Saturday the 6th November 1965, the day after his nineteenth birthday. The date was burnt into her memory. It had been the day she had finally managed to get herself to McAlester, looking for some closure after everything he had said to her about wanting her back right before being arrested, and she could remember pretty much all the conversation. It had all gone so horribly wrong that she had replayed it in her mind a thousand times in the days immediately after she had been there, wondering if there was any way it could have worked out differently.

_"Hurry it up Shepard, you got a visitor," she heard the guard bark as he ushered Tim into the visitation room. She looked up, saw Tim scanning the rows of small tables and had seen his expression turn to shock as his eyes had fixed upon her. She smiled nervously as he sat down opposite her, suddenly doubting her decision to have gone there when he just glared back at her._

_"What you doing here Leigh? This ain't no place for you." He had spoken harshly, his tone was cold and hard and Leigh felt like he had just slapped her, her eyes wide and shocked at his words. she had really expected him to be pleased to see her.  
><em>

_"I, I just wanted to see you, just needed to know you were ok for myself, not just hear it third hand from what Angela told Ryan who told someone else. I tried to come see you at the police station, soon as I found out you'd been arrested, but they wouldn't let me see you. I guess 'maybe cause I'm not family or nothing, so… so... Anyway it took me ages to arrange everything to visit you here."_

_He didn't reply._

_Leigh paused and she pulled nervously at the sleeve of her cardigan, staring down at the table and not knowing quite what else to say to him now she was here. Sighing she decided to just continue, she needed to know one way or the other what was going on with the two of them. "I mean when I last spoke to you we was meant to see each other, had stuff we were going to talk about and fix."_

_Still he remained silent, just staring at her with his dark eyes and she struggled to look him in the eye. His expression gave nothing at all away about what he thinking._

_Hating the silence she gabbled on nervously. "I'm sorry for coming here, I guess I just hoped you might still want to see me too but I suppose I was wrong about that. Besides, thought it might be good to have someone come wish you happy birthday in person."_

_She forced a small smile onto her face, desperate to get some reaction out of him, feeling a little relieved that Tim's expression had finally softened slightly._

_ "Hell, it's just a bit of a shock seeing you here is all."_

_"Oh. Ok. Are you mad with me 'cause I came here?"_

_"No, not really. Just it ain't exactly cool you coming here is it - don't especially want you to see me like this." Tim had moved his cuffed hands slightly, resting them on the table in front of him. "And you don't need all of them fucking creeps in here looking at you either." He scowled around the room at the other inmates there with their assortment of visitors.  
><em>

_They had spoken for a few more minutes, the conversation between them stilted and difficult._

_"Visiting times nearly up, start wrapping things up," one of the guards yelled, interrupting their awkward chat._

_"Listen Leigh, it'd better if you don't come here again." His voice had become hard and cold again and she felt stunned at how great her disappointment was now she had heard him say it and she began to protest.  
><em>

_"But… what about us? I thought you wanted to put things right? What about sorting…"_

_Tim had cut her off, not let her finish, it had seemed to her that his mind had already been made up. "You shouldn't have come here Leigh. It was all a mistake thinking we could fix things. There ain't ever no point in going back, it don't ever make things right again. I should never have said all that stuff to you before, guess I was just screwing with you back then, was using you. There isn't any 'us' to fix, there never really was, it wasn't nothing worth saving."_

_"I don't believe you, you said you missed me, that you wanted me back..." her voice trailed away._

_Tim shrugged slightly looking like he really didn't care, "Yeah well I said a lot of things, don't mean that I mean any of it. You should just get on with your life Leigh, find yourself someone else."_

_"I'm sorry. Sorry for everything, guess I should have just stayed away." her expression had been sad as she looked down at the table._

_"Yeah, you probably should have." Tim replied, his voice harsh and unfriendly again. The pair of them had stood, staring at each other, until suddenly the guard was grabbing Tim by the shoulder and taking him away again, while Leigh was taking what seemed like an incredibly long walk back across the room, trying to hold it together now she knew for sure that it was actually over between them. Once she'd made it out the room and back through the secure area she had practically run out of the building, where she found Two-Bit out in the car, dozing with his feet up on the dashboard._

_"Just take me home Two-Bit. You were right, I should never have come here, but don't you dare say you told me so." she had mumbled as she got into the car, tears staining her cheeks, trying not to look at her friend._

_"Dammit O'Connell, I ain't that much of a jerk am I? I ain't gonna say that, but what in all hell happened?" He asked as she had pulled the car door shut behind her._

_"Don't want to talk about it, just take me home, please?"  
><em>

"Hey, are you alright?"

The voice brought her abruptly back to the diner, to 1967. It was a shock seeing Tim but he had been home a while now and hadn't looked her up so it seemed plain he had truly meant all the things he had told her that day. Besides, she reminded herself, that had all happened a long time ago and she had moved on. She'd wasted six months with him before and even more time thinking about him after everything had fallen apart. But she had her own life now without him and she was doing alright. He didn't care about her and she didn't need Tim Shepard.

Leigh hadn't followed half of what her boyfriend had just told her though and he glanced over his shoulder and realised what was bothering her.

"Yeah, sorry, just wasn't expecting to see them in here." She frowned as she saw Tim with his arm around the girl, saying something to her which had made her giggle.

"You want to leave?"

"Maybe in a minute, don't want to look like I'm running out the door just because he's here. Hell, it ain't like I'm bothered about him anymore, that was over a long time ago. I'm sorry." She smiled, taking his hand, hoping to keep him in a good mood. "Tell me again, ok? I promise I won't get distracted this time."

xxxxxx

Tim kept glancing over at Leigh, not really listening to the chat that was going on around him, not that he was particularly interested in hearing the girls talk about arrangements for Nick's wedding anyway, some dull rubbish about dresses and flowers. Leigh didn't even look over at him once though, apparently absorbed in her conversation. Although he knew that the way he'd spoken to her the last time they'd met meant it wasn't surprising she was no longer interested in him. Hell, after the way he'd spoken to her he'd be surprised if she even gave him the time of day. He'd convinced himself it was the right thing to do - saying all that bullshit when she'd visited, except after seeing her there he didn't feel so sure about it all now.

Eventually Tim saw her heading across the diner towards the bathrooms. A couple of minutes later he excused himself, heading the same way, pleased with himself that he had timed it right to bump into her on her return.

"Hi." Tim looked her up and down and his first thought was that she looked so damn good. Close up Leigh looked so much better than he remembered. From her clothes it appeared like she had come straight from work, while her fair hair was cut a little different now, making her look so much more grown up than the girl he pictured her as in his memories.

"Oh, hi Tim. Heard you were home, how you doing?" She looked quickly across to where she had been sitting, pleased to see a couple of guys had stopped by the end of the table, chatting.

"Yeah, not bad." Tim watched her, she seemed a little on edge and her tone was polite. She sounded distant rather than friendly, but maybe that was just the weirdness of seeing him again.

"You on a date?" She asked with a small smile as she looked across to the group he was with.

Tim glanced back towards Maggie. "Yeah, something like that."

"Well, have fun and all, she's real pretty."

"Yeah I guess." Not as pretty as you though, he thought. She took a small step, looked like she was about to walk away, stopping again as he continued to speak. "Say Leigh, you want to grab a coffee sometime – catch up some – just for old time's sake?" He wasn't sure why he had asked her this, for some reason he just felt the need to have more than a two-minute conversation, without Maggie or Nick or Leigh's boyfriend watching them.

"Leigh looked at him, caught off-balance by him asking her this. "Um, glory, I'm not sure... I don't think I can. I'm seeing somebody."

"Just as friends then? It don't have to be a date or nothing." He asked again.

"Um that'd be nice, but really I can't."

"Pity. Are you sure I can't change your mind?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said, sounding anything but.

"Well, if you change your mind you know where to find me."

"Sure, ok, I really got to get going."

"Hey babe, you ready to go?" While they had been talking the guy she was with had crossed the room, was now sliding an arm around her shoulders possessively.

Tim turned his attention from Leigh, recognising the voice, realising why the guy had seemed so familiar. Jesus. She was with him. Pete fucking Myers. What the fuck was she wasting her time with him for? Now he knew why Curly had kept banging on trying to tell him who Myers was seeing and asking if Tim was going to get her involved.

"Sure, I'm ready," she smiled at Pete. She looked happy enough Tim thought, but there was something else he couldn't quite put his finger on – anxious, nervous? Or maybe just awkward at her ex and her boyfriend being in the same room. Yeah, that was probably it.

"Shepard."

"Myers." The atmosphere was instantly tense, as Tim remembered all his ideas of revenge, all the plots and schemes to get at Wayne, while Pete glared at him.

"Well 'bye then Tim, hope you have a nice evening with your date."

"Yeah, 'bye darling, hope to see you around real soon," he added, knowing it would wind Myers up. Then he headed into the bathroom, amused by the evil look he was receiving from Pete as he and Leigh had turned to walk away.

xxxxxx

"Jesus Pete, I'm sorry, but I can't exactly stop someone from saying hello to me can I?" Pete had taken hold of Leigh's arm as he led her across the diner, an angry look on his face.

"Don't mean you got to encourage him though does it? From where I was sitting it looked like a hell of a lot more going on than just saying hello," he snapped back at her. She hated it when he was like this, there was no need, she had never done anything to give him reason to doubt her. Hadn't accepted Tim's offer to meet even though some small part of her was wishing she had now, because then at least then the trouble she was getting might be justified.

Looking up as they passed by Judith nudged Nick, speaking in a loud whisper to him. "God, Nick, do something will you? He shouldn't speak to her like that."

"Hell I know Jude, but maybe they're both just having a bad day or something, ain't really none of my business is it?"

"Well, I'll say something to him if you won't. It ain't like she's got anyone else here to stick up for her is it?"

"Fine, alright, I'm going." he stood up wearily, he'd spent enough time over the years sorting out Sylvia's boyfriends without having to start doing the same for her friend. "Hey Myers, there a problem?" Nick walked up to them, stopping close to Pete, his smile friendly and his stance relaxed as he hoped the interruption would be enough to diffuse the argument.

"Yeah, just tell your friend to stay away from her, understand?"

"God, all he did was say hello. He ain't interested in me, he's out on a date." Leigh protested again.

"Yeah right." Pete glowered at her and she looked away, embarrassed at being at the centre of this scene.

"You ok Leigh?" Nick asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just want to go home away from everybody staring at me." She turned and walked out the door, her eyes on the ground instead of the people around that were watching them.

"Keep your friend in line Miller, and away from her ok?" Pete muttered, glaring past Nick as he saw Tim heading back across the room, before turning and following Leigh out of the building.

xxxxxx

Seeing Nick and Pete exchanging words and curious as to what was going on Tim walked up to his friend.

"Getting some grief there Nick?"

"Yeah, although I reckon it's all down to you in the first place."

"What did I do?"

"Pissed off Pete Myers some from what I gather."

"Yeah, guess I did." Tim replied with a smirk.

"Yeah, real hilarious to hear him bitching at Leigh just 'cause some guy's spoken to her, especially given that he knows you two got history together."

"What d'you mean?" Tim queried.

"He's just an insecure idiot at the end of the day – can't stand other guys talking to her. I don't know, he just gives her a hard time sometimes, I suppose he's worried she's going to ditch him or something."

Tim felt a little guilty, his parting words had only been meant to needle Myers. Which they clearly had, except it sounded like it was Leigh who was suffering for it now. But he quickly dismissed the uncomfortable feeling. She had turned him down so she clearly wasn't interested in him any more. There was no room for sentimentality in Tim's world, so maybe he could turn Pete's insecurities to his advantage. Like he had said to Curly, he needed to get even - no matter what the cost.

* * *

><p>AN: Huge thanks again for reading and reviewing the previous chapter and for following the story.  
>Hope you liked this chapter too - any feedback on whether the flashback scene worked (or not) would be greatly appreciated - I just needed to add in a bit of the back story about how things had been left between the two of them, to explain the relationships a little more and to try to help it work as a stand alone story.<br>The Beginning of the Twist belongs to The Futureheads. :)


	4. You Got the Style

**You Got the Style**

Friday 14th April 1967

"Good morning Mr Shepard."

"Morning." Tim slouched down on the chair opposite his parole officer, back for his weekly check in.

Mr Barnes looked up from the papers on his desk, peering over the top of his glasses at Tim as he spoke. "Glad to see you've managed to keep out of trouble since we last met."

"It's only been a week."

"You'd be surprised how quickly some folk I meet can land themselves back in hot water."

"Any news on the job front?"

"Yeah, I think I've found the perfect opportunity for you." The man pushed a sheet of paper across the table towards Tim. "You need to go to this address as soon as we're done here, ask for Dave Hollings. All being well and if you don't piss him off then you'll be able to start Monday morning. Guy said he needed someone smart with a steady hand and a good eye for detail. I figured with your record of not being sent down for any of the robberies you got looked at for, until that last one, that you might fit the bill."

Tim stood, grabbing the piece of paper and turned to leave the room, before Mr Barnes called him back, a grin on his face as he spoke.

"Same time next week Mr Shepard, it's part of your terms to keep in touch, remember? You'll be allowed the time out of work as part of the agreement to hire you, provided you can keep the job that long."

"Yeah, I'll be here."

xxxxxx

Monday 17th April 1967

It was Monday morning, the first Monday of this new start with a proper full-time job. Tim was pacing around the kitchen drinking coffee. It was six a.m. and he was already up, showered, dressed and feeling a little stressed. He was starting the job the parole officer had set him up for at eight that morning. It was working for an electrician, the guy was going to teach him on the job.

It was difficult, the first day had been hard work, a lot of carrying stuff around, or clearing up and Tim struggled with having someone dictate how he spent all his time again. But he bit his tongue, keeping his issues to himself and as the week progressed and he began to actually learn some basic things he was a little more interested. The logic behind all the wires and the connections appealed to him, and he appreciated the sense of order and potential for consequence that ignoring it presented. Then there was always the thought in the back of his mind that if he screwed it up and he lost the job he would break his parole terms, and could find himself being sent back to complete the remaining time off of his sentence.

xxxxxx

Thursday 20th April 1967

On Thursday they were starting a job over at the new housing development on the west side of town, large houses being built for people with more money than they knew what to do with, Tim couldn't imagine ever being in a position to live in a place like these. He was carrying some gear across from the truck when he saw a familiar figure on one of the neighbouring builds.

"Hey there Tim."

"Morning Curtis." He nodded in the direction of the large guy who was half way down a ladder and he continued on towards the house with the box of parts as Darrel walked closer.

"So you working here now?"

"Yeah, Hollings got the contract for fitting out some of the electrics."

"Good to see you getting sorted finally."

"Yeah." Tim wasn't exactly sure he agreed. It still felt like there was something missing. Everything was too easy, to safe and he kind of missed the thrill of it all.

"Look, a few of us usually stop for a beer on the way home Fridays, you wanna come? Meet some of the other guys?"

"Yeah, sure."

xxxxxx

Friday 21st April 1967

Somehow Tim had made it through the first whole week of work. His parole meeting had gone pretty well, Barnes was scaling it back to every two weeks from now on, and he had his first pay packet in his back pocket. Now it was Friday evening and he was looking to unwind. Driving away from work at five he followed Darry Curtis' truck back towards their side of town. Tim parked across the street and strolled in through the door, taking a seat at the bar next to Darrel.

Tim had chatted a little to Darrel and a couple of the other guys he recognised from the building site, then made some small talk with Charlie, but was quite pleased to be left with his own company as the others started playing pool. His mind wandered, remembering Myers stopping outside here, wondering if Leigh was upstairs now. And if she was, was she alone? Tim had seen her a couple of times in the last week – coming out of work as he had been driving home one day, then standing over at the bus stop another evening, but he hadn't stopped, hadn't spoken to her since that one time in the diner. He had a hankering to see her again, it had been niggling away in the back of his mind so maybe he would chance his arm and see if she was home, being as he was practically on her doorstep.

He glanced across, Curtis was playing pool still, looked like he was getting thrashed, and a short while later he rejoined Tim, cursing about the bad luck he'd had in the game.

"I'm gonna head out Tim, need to go check everything's ok at home with the boys before I get ready to meet Liz," he grinned. "You staying here for the evening? Some of the other guys are making a night of it."

"Nah, don't reckon I am tonight."

"You off out with your girl then? Heard it was getting pretty serious with you two."

Jesus, though Tim, seemed the entire neighbourhood knew about him and Maggie Ford. It sure wasn't serious for him, he'd only been home two weeks so he wondered what she'd been telling people. The way people were talking about them he wouldn't be surprised if next up someone asked him if they were making it a double wedding with Nick and Jude, things definitely needed calming down a little.

"No, got something else I need to do tonight. Going to finish my drink first before I go anywhere else though."

"Yeah, ok, I'll see you Monday then, have a good one." Darry clapped him on the shoulder, then walked out into the evening sunlight.

xxxxxx

It was a little after six when Tim knocked on her door. There was no sign of Pete's car anywhere nearby so he had decided to take a chance and call on Leigh, telling himself as he walked up the stairs that it was purely to get some information on Myers, not even fooling himself with that thought though. The simple fact of it was that he wanted to see her again. He really hoped she was at home.

"Oh," she said, surprised to see him as she pulled open the door. "How come you're here?"

"Just wanted to talk to you. If it's convenient and all?"

"How did you know where I live?" She questioned.

Tim shrugged, "I dunno, guess someone must have mentioned it to me." He knew he didn't sound convincing, but could hardly tell her he'd been following Pete and figured it out from there. "So, can I come in then?"

"Um, sure, I guess it'd be ok."

Tim followed her into the small apartment, pushing the door shut behind him.

"So you want a coffee? Or a beer maybe? Sit down if you like."

"Yeah thanks, a beer would be cool." He crossed the room, taking a seat on the small sofa as she headed into the kitchen.

"Here." She passed him a beer bottle before setting her own glass on the small side table and sitting next to him.

"So how you been Leigh? You look real well."

"Not so bad I suppose. I mean it's been not so good a lot of the time too, but things are pretty much all right again now."

"You been living here long?"

"Fair while, more than a year now anyways. I suppose you don't know what happened, hardly like it would have been important for anyone to tell you or nothing. Did you know my daddy died? Was about a month after I came to see you."

"Hell, I'm sorry." He had assumed it had happened. He remembered how unwell Frank O'Connell had been, but it was still a shock to see the obvious pain in her expression as she talked about it.

"Well, it wasn't like I hadn't been expecting it. But it was still terrible, just horrible."

"But why'd you have to move? Thought that it was his place? Couldn't you keep it?"

"Yeah, well that's the beauty of not getting a divorce when your wife leaves you," she said, her tone bitter, before she continued more softly. "I don't think he ever thought it would happen like that, don't think it even occurred to him she'd get anything after being gone for all them years. So I rented the only place I could find that I could afford on my wages at the time. Then ended up staying, 'cause it might seem like an even more crummy part of the neighbourhood but it really ain't as bad as it seems. Anyway there wasn't a lot of people willing to rent a place to some teenage girl on her own."

"Jesus Leigh, that's fucking rubbish."

"Yeah, ain't it."

"So has your mother been back in town then? You seen her at all?"

"Nope, not even once, lives over in Oklahoma City now and was all done through her lawyer. Made it clear she wanted nothing to do with me. She's some piece of work, that's for sure."

"Hell, I'm sorry you've had to deal with all this shit, wish I could have been around to help you out some."

"'S'all right, wasn't your problem anyway was it? Besides, Sylv and Two-Bit helped me out a lot so it ain't like I was on my own." Leigh looked away, not wanting to talk about it anymore, needing to turn the focus of the conversation back on to him. "So how rough was it in there?"

"About as bad as I imagined it would be. I ain't looking to repeat it any time soon, that's for sure." Tim didn't want to think about McAlester, much less tell her about it in any detail. He had survived it, had spent the eighteen months on edge and watching his back and he had no desire to relive that experience any time soon. It had been an eye-opening time. He'd gone from the oldest punk with the toughest reputation who everybody was scared of in the reformatory, to being just a teenage nobody trying to find his place and survive amongst the career criminals over at the state penitentiary.

The conversation waned, as they both wondered what to say, or if they could find anything positive to talk about. Tim couldn't think of anything to say as he looked at her. Right now he couldn't care any less about Myers or his ideas for getting even. She was maybe not so obviously good-looking as girls like Maggie and Sylvia, but since Tim had got to know Leigh he'd always thought she was just about the best girl he'd met and now all he could think about was how badly he wanted to be with her again. He wondered whether he should just go for it and tell her, kiss her.

Before he could act on his feelings though, Leigh was on her feet, looking as uneasy as he felt, the tension between them palpable. "You want another drink? Or you got to be somewhere? You going to meet Maggie?" she asked, not waiting for him to answer as she headed towards the kitchen.

"Um yeah, sure. Another drink would be good. You mind if I use your bathroom?"

She shook her head in reply and Tim left the room, needing a minute to pull himself together and get away from the strained atmosphere. He splashed some water on his face, and looked at himself in the mirror, he needed to pull himself together. As he headed back out Tim stopped and looked into the room across the hall. So this must be her bedroom. He recognised some of the furniture from back in her old house. There were still photos stuck to the mirror on the dresser, new ones intermingled with ones he had seen before– Leigh and Sylvia with smiles on their faces and flowers in their hands. Another of Leigh holding a baby. The familiar ones of Leigh and her father from various times in her childhood, her father when he was younger at some boxing competition. As he looked at the last picture Tim wondered if she'd kept the pictures she used to have of the two of them together, or if they'd been thrown away long ago. The last image showed Leigh smiling at Pete, his arm around her and their heads close together as they laughed about something. And here he was looking into the bedroom she presumably shared with Pete Myers sometimes. God the thought of them being together made his flesh crawl, and he reminded himself of the reason why he was meant to be here. Time to go find out something useful, not act like some lovestruck loser going soft over a girl.

Tim watched her closely as he posed the question. "So, you not seeing your boyfriend tonight then?"

"No, Sylvia's coming over to pick me up soon, I'm gonna go spend the night over there, help her out with the baby while Pete's working. He generally takes some extra night shifts on a weekend. Or if not and we're not doing nothing together then he's often with Jimmy and some of them other guys he hangs around with."

This caught Tim's attention, it was interesting to hear Pete still had most his old River Kings connections. Sounded like he maybe wasn't as reformed as Tim had been led to believe. That was definitely something worth looking in to. "What do they do then?"

"How in hell would I know, the usual stuff you boys do with your friends I guess," Leigh replied with a smile. "Drinking, bars, fighting, trying not to get in too much trouble or at least not get caught doing it. I don't really ask because if I don't know then it don't give me nothing to worry about."

"Will he mind me hanging around with you?"

Leigh looked a little uncomfortable as she answered, "Somehow after the other day I doubt he'd be too thrilled. You took a bit of a chance coming over here unexpected and all. Guess it was lucky he wasn't here when you turned up."

"Hell, I can take care of myself darling, you know that. You gonna tell him I came round?"

"God, no. I mean he was mad as hell last week because you spoke to me. Don't reckon I need him finding out you been to the apartment as well. He'd lose it big time, probably think I planned it or something."

"And you don't care about lying to him?"

"Course I do, but it ain't like I'm doing anything wrong or nothing is it? He can kind of be a bit … um... touchy about me talking to other guys, so I don't see there's any point in him getting all wound up just because we talked some. I sure don't need another argument when there's nothing going on to argue about. I mean he can only just about get his head around me and Two-Bit being buddies so me spending time alone with someone I used to date would tip him over the edge. Hell, if it was the other way around and Maggie was hanging around her ex you'd probably be just the same."

Tim ignored this, wanting to keep the subject on Pete, not his own relationship, even if it was still bothering him that everyone seemed to think it was something more than he did. "How long have you been seeing him then?"

"Little under four months now."

Tim frowned, unable to keep his opinion to himself any longer, his distaste evident in his tone. "Jesus Leigh I thought you were better than that."

"Better than what?" she snapped back, and he knew he'd touched a nerve.

"Better than him. You're better than he damn well deserves, that's for sure. You don't need some loser telling you who you can and can't speak to."

"Look, I didn't let you come in here just so that I could listen to you tell me everything you think I'm doing wrong ok? To be honest I don't even know why I did say you could stay now. Probably should have just shut the door in your face earlier and saved myself some trouble." Leigh stood up, her expression hurt and angry. "I haven't been sitting here telling you what I think of Maggie Ford or the fact her reputation is a million times worse than Sylvia's ever was - and apparently all true. So how about you just respect the fact I made a choice and I'll do the same for you? I met someone else so you need to deal with it - I mean that's what you told me to go do last time we spoke about it. But if you haven't got nothing good to say about me then maybe you better go instead?"

Tim stood as well, "Hell I'm sorry Leigh. Guess me and him just never got along."

"Yeah, well, maybe everything's alright. And even if I wasn't it still wouldn't be your problem, because I'm not your responsibility to worry about. All that between us was over a long time ago. Ain't like I ever really meant anything to you Tim, so don't pretend that I did."

Tim was taken aback by her words, by the fact that she was suggesting that the time they had been together hadn't meant anything to him, but he didn't want to fight anymore with her. Seemed he'd done a better job of lying about it all than he'd thought when she'd come to see him that time.

"Dammit Leigh, I'm sorry, I don't want to fight with you."

"Look Sylvia will be here soon, so maybe it'd be best for you to go? Don't exactly need her giving me a hard time about you being here either."

"Yeah ok." He crossed the room, pulling open the door and stepped outside before turning to look at her. "Just take care of yourself, ok? You reckon we can maybe manage to be friends?"

"Sure, that'd be alright, bye then Tim." Leigh had followed him and as she stood in the doorway she hugged him quickly, her hand resting on his arm as she kissed him softly on the cheek, leaving Tim absolutely certain now that the feelings he had tried to convince himself didn't exist were still very much alive. For the second time that night he thought about taking her in his arms and kissing her properly and he wished he was staying right there with her.

But she was already gone, the door closed behind her. So instead he headed down the metal staircase, turning the corner onto the sidewalk and began the short walk back to his car.

"Well, well. Look who it is. Wondered if you'd turn up bothering her, just didn't expect to see you here."

Just his luck, he thought as he looked up to see Sylvia blocking his path. So much for Leigh saying she had mellowed – certainly didn't sound that way to Tim. She pushed the car door shut, holding the baby in her arms and the small boy stared suspiciously up at Tim, his head nestled against his mothers shoulder as he sucked his thumb.

"Ain't been bothering no one, just been catching up."

"What, catching up on how much you hurt her?"

"Goddamnit Sylvia, it ain't none of your business what happened with us, ok? Especially not after all this time. 'Sides, she didn't exactly sound like it meant anything to her, then or now."

"Sure. You didn't have to watch her crying for days after she come to see you in jail and you told her she meant nothing to you. Or try to help her pick up the pieces when she ended up with her whole life ruined when Frank died. She's doing good now, she don't need you coming back round here to stir things up and spoil it all."

"What and you think some jerk like Myers is good for her?"

"No, but even if I don't like him that don't automatically make you a good alternative, does it? Best you stick to broads like Maggie Ford. Leigh was always too good for you." She hugged the baby to her, before, glaring back at Tim.

"Funny, I seem to remember you being involved in pushing the two of us together back then."

"Yeah well back then I also thought that Dallas Winston was the best guy I'd ever meet and we'd end up living happily ever after, and look how that turned out. Guess I grew up some and realised there's more important things in life than drinking and partying at Buck's every weekend."

"So how's married life treating you?" he asked, glad to change the subject.

"Be better once Mike gets home, when his tour's over. But at least I got Matthew here. Anyways, quit trying to change the subject. Leigh might be taken in by you acting all friendly, but I'm not an idiot, I know you don't do nothing unless there's something in it for you. So don't you dare go fucking up her life again just for your own entertainment."

Before he could reply Sylvia had headed away around the corner towards Leigh's place.

xxxxxx

"Hi honey, you ready?" Sylvia called out, pushing the door open.

"Hi Sylv, Hey there Matty," Leigh replied, kissing the baby gently. "Let me just get my bag from the bedroom and we'll go."

"So what you been doing this evening?"

Leigh looked a little uncomfortable as she stuffed a few things from around the bedroom into her bag, not looking at Sylvia who was standing in the doorway, watching her. She wondered if Sylvia had seen Tim leaving. She didn't think so, it wasn't like her friend to keep quiet about anything, she was sure Sylvia would just straight up ask her if she had seen him. "Oh, you know, the usual. Just been listening to the radio, doing some chores, nothing much really."

Leigh wasn't exactly sure why she hadn't told Sylvia the truth, especially if it was all as innocent as she thought.

"Ok, well let's go then."

* * *

><p>AN: Massive thanks to anyone who's reading, following, favouriting and reviewing. Have written lots of different versions of this chapter many times over the last week, still not entirely sure I'm happy with it...anyways, 'You Got the Style' belongs to Athlete.


	5. Play with Fire

**Play With Fire**

Thursday 27th April 1967

Apart from the noise of the television the house was quiet, because for once he was the only person home. His mother had gone out someplace, he didn't catch where when she had told him she was going and he didn't particularly care. His stepfather would be in whatever bar was still serving him. Angela had gone to the bowling alley with her friends straight from school and Tim wasn't home from work yet. But as soon as he heard the front door slam shut Curly knew his plan for spending a lazy couple of hours laying on the sofa and watching whatever garbage was on the television, to make the most of some time with no one yelling at him clearly wasn't going to work out. Having Tim home and trying to organise everything in his life sure was taking some getting used to again.

Curly could tell Tim had something on his mind from the moment his brother had walked in through the front door from work at five to six. Tim hadn't sat down, had just strode off determinedly down the hall muttering about needing to change his clothes, and snapping at Curly to make sure he was ready to go in ten minutes as he had walked past the door to the sitting room. It was barely more than five minutes later when Tim had returned to the room, leaning against the door frame with an impatient look on his face as he spoke.

"You ready?"

"Yep, why, where are we going?" Curly asked, hastily pulling on his shoes.

Tim threw the car keys at him, "I'll tell you on the way, you can drive."

Curly repeated the question again as he started the car. "So where is it that we are going then Tim?"

"Just heading to Bucks, catch up with Ryan and the boys, check up on what they're doing and make sure Lang hasn't forgotten to tell me anything important. Catch up with a few people around town and make sure people are still remembering who's in charge now I'm back."

"Really? Nothing else?" Curly asked, surprised.

"Sure, I just fancy taking my brother for a beer to unwind some after work," Tim deadpanned in reply.

Curly laughed, "Sure, I believe you, nothing else going on?"

"Might try to figure out what Myers is up to tonight, start getting at him a little, he just seems a little too comfortable with the way things are at the moment. Don't reckon he's worried at all about me doing anything."

"Hell, maybe that's better, he won't be expecting nothing when you do plan something big?"

"Maybe, but it sure ain't as much fun as seeing the look on his face when he's wound up some is it?"

Tim sat back, looking relaxed as he scanned the streets while Curly drove. As they slowed at a junction on the edge of their neighbourhood he glanced towards the small run down grocery store on the street corner and spotted Leigh heading inside.

"Pull over a minute Curly."

Curly looked questioningly at his brother, he had also noticed her and was wondering what his brother was thinking. "Tim, you do know she's seeing Myers?"

"Yeah, I know," Tim interrupted. "I only want some smokes." He was already out the car door and striding off towards the store.

"Sure you do," Curly muttered to himself under his breath as he glanced across at the three-quarters full cigarette pack on the dashboard. Sighing, he followed his brother into the store, curious to see what Tim was doing.

Looking around, Tim saw Leigh leaning on the end of counter next to the cash register, talking and laughing with the assistant. The pair of them were deep in conversation, their heads close together as they looked at something in the newspaper and he was surprised to realise it was Two-Bit Mathews she was standing beside.

"So, what do you think? I mean writing up the details rich folks send in about their kid's weddings ain't exactly anything exciting, but apparently people like reading about 'em. It's extra work on top of my proper job but at least it's a start and it's got my name on it and I get a bit of extra cash too."

"Yeah, looks real good seeing your name in print O'Connell, you'll be editor before you know it."

"Unlikely, but thanks for the vote of confidence." She smiled at her friend as he glanced up on hearing the bell of the door signalling another customer approaching, straightening up to his full height and folding his arms as he spotted Tim and Curly.

"Afternoon Shepards."

Leigh hastily took her elbows off the counter as she turned to see Tim walking across the store towards them. Meanwhile Curly loitered in the background, trying to make it look like he was really interested in the shelves of candy while he watched Tim from the corner of his eye. He didn't want to get involved and knew Tim wouldn't thank him if he did, but he still wanted to see what Tim was doing.

"Afternoon Mathews, Leigh." Tim nodded at them as he spoke.

"Hi." She smiled quickly then looked away, busying herself with folding up the newspaper as Two-Bit frowned a little at her, shaking his head ever so slightly.

"So, what can I get for the pair of you?" he asked Tim, a fake grin on his face and his tone overly friendly.

"Some smokes, those up on the back there." Tim gestured at some obscure brand on the back shelf down the other end of the counter, meaning Two-Bit would need to use the step to reach them down. Scowling a little, he kicked an empty box out of his way and headed to get them. Once Two-Bit turned his back, Tim focused his attention back to Leigh, stepping a little closer to her, his voice low so only she could hear his words.

"You home later?"

"What?" Leigh asked, taken aback by his question.

"I said, are you at home later?"

"Um yeah, well no, not exactly. I'm seeing Pete."

"Right, so tomorrow night then? Shall we say about the same time as last week?" Tim asked, with a grin.

"For what?"

"For me to come call on you, being as you're too scared to go out anyplace where someone might see you talking to me."

"I ain't scared, just sensible. Just don't need another argument is all."

"Well, I guess it's the best plan then. Can't exactly claim that we're staying friends if we don't never talk."

"Seems that we're talking now."

"Properly though. Without one of your friends bitching at me or your boyfriend getting all worked up about it." Seeing Two-Bit heading back and not wanting to end the conversation yet, Tim called out to him. "Actually Mathews, better make it two packs, the amount Curly gets through these days."

Two-Bit strode away again, "Fucks sake Shepard, ain't nobody bought these in ten months of me working here, you no good son of ..." he continued cursing out Tim loud enough for them all to hear, lucky that there were no other customers in the store to offend.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Saturday. He's working Saturday night," Leigh offered, wondering why she hadn't just told Tim to get lost. She knew it wasn't a good idea to get mixed up with him again, especially when she was dating Pete and all she was hearing from other people was how serious him and Maggie were. But then it was also kind of flattering that he still wanted to spend time with her. Two-Bit had finally returned, ringing up Tim's purchase as he pulled some cash from his pocket.

"Cheers Mathews. Maybe see you around sometime Leigh. You ready Curly?" He had smiled as he spoke, amused as he listened to Two-Bit questioning her in the background while he walked away.

"So what was he saying to you O'Connell? Are you ok?"

"Nothing, It was just nothing. I'm fine."

"Jesus girl you don't want to get caught up with him again, tell me you haven't forgotten how it all ended up before? You don't need to get burned again getting involved with Shepard. He ain't worth it."

"It was nothing Two-Bit, honestly, was just saying hello, and I'm ok, really, you don't need to worry about..."

Tim didn't hear anymore as the door swung shut behind them. "Here you go kid, knock yourself out," and he threw the packs of cigarettes to Curly as he pulled open the car door.

"Jesus Tim, why'd d'you buy this shit? Could have bought some decent smokes at least."

xxxxxx

A couple of hours later the brothers were leaving Buck's bar, the chat with Ryan and the rest of the guys had been productive. There were some jobs lined up and things were ticking along nicely with the gang. Tim was reassured that he had regained his control of the situation, his mood continuing to improve. So far his evening had been pleasingly productive.

"So what we do now Tim?"

"Let's drive a little, see what's going on around the place tonight. Gimme the keys."

Curly fished in his jeans pocket, pulling them out and handing them to Tim as they crossed the parking lot. "What were you saying to Leigh earlier then Tim?"

"Nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing."

"Was only passing the time of day, is all."

"Yeah right." Curly didn't believe him but wasn't going to push it, he could do without Tim being mad at him as that pretty much always ended up with Curly getting his ass handed to him in a fight. "You ain't gonna do nothing bad to her are you Tim?"

"Like I said Curly, anyone mixed up with Myers is fair game as far as I'm concerned," Tim replied, his voice emotionless, omitting to tell his brother he was planning on going to visit her. For the second time. Or that he was looking forward to it.

Curly shook his head, he had expected that his brother would come back harder, tougher after being in jail, but he still found it hard to believe that Tim was really thinking of using her to get at Pete. He remembered how messed up Tim had been after she had finished with him, how his brother had wanted to put things right and he couldn't believe that all that stood for nothing with Tim, even all this time later. But then, maybe that was precisely why Tim was prepared to hurt her, maybe he was still bitter about how he had screwed things up before and the fact she had moved on.

Tim drove off, his expression serious as he headed down the ribbon and back through the middle of town, slowing as he passed Jay's, then cinema and the bowling alley.

"Say you wanna see if Angel's still in there Tim?" Curly grinned. "Could scare her boyfriend a little if he thinks you're checking up on him."

"Yeah, why not." They crossed the street, entering the dimly lit bowling alley. Curly bought drinks while Tim scanned the room, spotting Angela and a group of her friends across the far side of the room, watching as one of her friends nudged her in the ribs and pointed out her two brothers, causing her to head quickly in their direction.

"What you doing here Tim? You checking up on me or something? Don't reckon you ever set foot in the place before." She looked angry, had folded her arms and was glaring at him.

"Well, you know that just ain't true Angel. We were passing by, just thought we'd come in and say hello." He grinned at her. "So, you gonna introduce me to your friend then Angel, or is he too scared of me?"

"I'm not scared," remarked the large dark-haired boy who had walked over to her side, throwing an arm around her shoulders casually, the action irritating Tim a little. "My name's Bryon."

"Well pleased to meet you Bryon, I guess you know who we are?"

"Yeah."

"Jesus Tim, will you just go home or something, stop spoiling everything?" Angela snapped, looking uncomfortable. "Everything's fine, I'm fine. I promise I won't be late getting home, alright?"

Tim laughed at her discomfort. "Sure Angel, we'll just finish this drink, give me a chance to get to know Bryon here a little better. So why don't you go back to your little friends, get Curly to keep you all company?"

She frowned, wanting to tell him to get lost, but as always she gave in, she wasn't brave enough to make Tim really mad in public, was wise enough to know that would only make things a hundred times worse for her. So she walked back across the room with Curly, hitting him on the arm as he teased her. Tim turned his attention back to his sister's boyfriend. "So..."

xxxxxx

Half an hour later, Tim and Curly headed back out towards the car.

"What d'you think of Bryon then Tim."

"You were right, he's a jerk. Thinks he's real smart but no way is he good enough for Angela." He glanced along the street as he walked. "Say, that look like Myers' car to you?"

Curly glanced across at the Ford parked up nearby on a small side road. "Yeah, reckon it is. You know, I got a real good idea if you want to piss him off a little."

xxxxxx

Leigh and Pete headed out of the movie theatre into the cool evening and strolled slowly back to the car, his arm around her shoulders.

"Thanks for taking me Pete. I've had a real nice time."

"My pleasure. You wanna come back to mine?" He asked, grinning at her before kissing her.

"Yeah, ok."

Pete opened the car door for her, then walked round and climbed in himself. He turned the key in the ignition but nothing happened. Tried again and still nothing. "Fucks sake!" he exclaimed, smacking his hand down on the middle of the steering wheel.

"What's wrong?"

"It's probably nothing, sorry," he leant across and kissed her, then pulled the handle, popping the hood before getting out the car to see if he could see any problem. "Damn car, it ain't going nowhere tonight by the looks of things. Sorry babe but you probably better just go home, if I don't have the car working you won't get home in time for work tomorrow morning. Look, I'll call Jimmy, get him to drive you, then he can come back and help me sort this junk heap out."

"It's alright, I can walk," she protested.

"No. You ain't doing that, I'll need Jimmy to help me sort this anyway." Pete forced a smile onto his face then crossed the road to the phone booth before she could disagree, wanting to hide his anger from her. As soon as he had looked at the engine it had been obvious that someone had been messing with the car and he had a fair idea who was going to have been behind it. Looked like he was going to spend his night looking for a fight instead of enjoying himself with his girl.

The call made, Pete returned to her, pulling Leigh into his arms. "Jimmy's on his way. Look, I'll come to yours tomorrow evening, alright? Make it up to you then?"

"Yeah, that'd be good." She smiled, wondering why she was feeling more than a little relieved to just be going home.

xxxxxx

Saturday 29th April 1967

It was nearly eight o'clock when Leigh heard the knock at the door. She had persuaded herself that Tim wasn't going to show up and now she wasn't entirely sure whether she should feel pleased or disappointed that he had proved her wrong. She let Tim in, her smile fading slightly as she noticed some bruises on his face, his scabbed knuckles. Pete had turned up at hers in a similar state the night before, his face cut and with a black eye, refusing to tell her who he had been fighting with or what it had been about. Tim followed her into the kitchen, where she stopped and turned to look at him more closely.

"You ok? Been fighting or something?" She asked, wondering if it just a coincidence they were both in a mess or whether it had been Tim involved and that had been why Pete had been so touchy and moody with her the previous night. The bruises were maybe a couple of days old, but he hadn't had them in the store on Thursday. Subconsciously Leigh started to lift her hand, wanting to turn his face to her to see the bruises more clearly but then dropped her hand back to her side quickly, guiltily, as she became aware of what she was doing.

"Yeah, something like that. You not going out anywhere tonight?"

"No, like I said Pete's working and anyway, I need to try to save some money. Always got bills that need paying." She wasn't going to let him distract her from asking the questions forming in her mind. "Bet you're parole officer wouldn't be thrilled about seeing you looking like that? Who you been fighting with?" She watched him, trying to gauge his reaction to her asking but frustratingly Tim was still pretty unreadable to her.

"Yeah well, I only got to see him every two weeks now, otherwise he'd probably be giving me a long lecture about keeping out of trouble. Doubt it was anyone you would know, just some random guy in a bar was all."

Leigh wasn't convinced, wondered if they had both been lying to her,"Funny, that's pretty much the same thing Pete said to me when he turned up yesterday evening with a black eye and a split lip." She kept her eyes on Tim, looking for any flicker of reaction, any admission it had been him but there was nothing.

"Yeah well you know what it's like round here, plenty of fighting in this neighbourhood."

Leigh didn't think he was lying to her, there was no hint of it and she realised she needed to get over herself, Tim and Pete barely knew each other and it wasn't likely they would have run into each other, or been fighting. "Yeah, I guess, and at least you got Maggie to take care of you now." She opened the fridge, taking out a beer to pass over to him.

"Seem to remember that used to be your thing, patching up all us boys dumb enough to get beat up."

"Yeah well, that's the beauty of having your own girl now, she can do it for you, can't she?"

"Don't know that she'd ever be as good at it as you though," he remarked, his tone causing Leigh to blush a little.

"You never know, she might be a whole better than me at a lot of things."

"Somehow I doubt that," Tim replied, pleased to see her face flush a little more at his words, before he abruptly changed the subject, taking it back to a more light-hearted level. "So anyway, how you been Leigh? Had a good week at work?"

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks to anyone reading, following, reviewing etc, it's very much appreciated and I hope you are liking it so far?  
>Play with Fire belongs to The Rolling Stones.<p> 


	6. Do I Wanna Know?

**Do I Wanna Know?**

As the weeks rolled on, Tim continued to work hard, mostly enjoying the job, not that he would admit it to anyone else. Even his parole officer was surprised at how well he appeared to be doing. Now and then he would go for a beer with Darrel and the crowd from the building site, and it surprised him to find he had more in common with the elder Curtis than he expected. He was always stressed out about how he needed to keep his brothers out of trouble and his worries about the draft now one of them was over eighteen or how tight money was so he had to continually take on extra shifts. More often than not though Tim spent his evenings hanging out with Curly and the guys, sometimes pulling the occasional job with the gang. It helped to top up his own income, but he knew he was mainly doing it for the thrill of it. He knew that he enjoyed the challenge of running things, being in control, didn't like being just one of the guys or being told what to do and knew that he had a reputation to maintain.

Otherwise Tim spent time with Nick and his crowd. Sometimes he'd pick up some random girl in Buck's but he also continued spending time with Maggie, on and off, when he could be bothered and he hadn't told her to get lost again. It was convenient enough being with her in the group, she and Judith were good friends so it usually meant he could leave the girls talking amongst themselves for at least some of the evening and get some space.

He'd also been continuing to work on getting back at Pete. In the couple of weeks since Curly had tampered with the car and the night had ended in a fight, Tim had been working on feeding some false information to the Kings on what he was doing and had done some jobs on their territory. But he still needed a plan, was slightly obsessed with doing as much damage to Myers as he had done to Tim, only he hadn't figured out quite how to achieve it yet. On that basis he had also got in the habit of calling round on Leigh, maybe once each week, usually at the weekend sometime.

Sometimes Tim felt a little guilty that she was so incredibly trusting and open with him, would tell him stuff about her week, including what she and Pete were doing or where they were planning on going so he always came away with some kind of helpful information. But then he also found he looked forward to spending that couple of hours chatting, laughing and enjoying her company and unwinding after his week. If he had to guess he would say Leigh enjoyed it as much as him, but he wasn't ready to ask her – he didn't want to upset the balance of things quite yet.

xxxxxx

Friday 19th May 1967

"Hey princess," Buck had grinned at Leigh as she and Sylvia walked up to the bar. The pair of them hadn't been in there in an awfully long time and he wondered what the occasion was. "So how come you two are here?"

"Hi Buck, it's Sylvia's birthday and her mother offered to take Matty for the night so we thought we'd come out for old time's sake, just the two of us like we used to. See what's new."

"Well, don't think much has changed, a few new faces but more than likely the same old drunks. Hope you two have a good night – what can I get you? First drink's on me," he offered, reaching for glasses.

The bar got busier and busier as the evening went on until there was hardly any room to move. Leigh had barely had time to stop and think all evening, enjoying the buzz of being out in the bar. It was great being able to talk and laugh with her friends without Pete getting upset or jealous if some guy said hello to her or looked at her in a way he didn't like. It was a while before she noticed that Tim was there, with the guys from the gang and a bunch of girls hanging around them all, and it was disappointingly obvious he was there with Maggie. Tim's attention seemed to be focused on the people he was with and she wondered whether to go say hello. Maybe it was just the drink but she really wanted to speak to him.

Tim on the other hand had noticed Leigh and Sylvia the minute they'd walked into Buck's. He had been surprised to see the pair of them, Sylvia was never out anyplace anymore now she had her kid and he hadn't seen Leigh in there since he'd got home - it wasn't a place the River Kings had ever hung out at so she didn't go there with Pete. The girls were dressed up like it was something special and he wondered why they were there, until Nick had mentioned his sister's birthday, crossing the room to go speak with her.

Tim was kind of pleased to know Leigh was there, not out someplace with Pete. But a little pissed off too. Earlier that evening he had called in to Charlie's for a beer after work then had gone to see if she was home, had been pretty sure she'd told him Pete would be working again this weekend, only the place had been empty. So he'd driven off feeling annoyed at her for not being home and called Maggie up instead. And now here he was, stuck with Maggie, bored with her conversation, getting more and more irritated as he watched Leigh chatting with Buck, then Nick, and what seemed like near enough every guy in the bar apart from him.

xxxxxx

"Say Sylv, I'm gonna head to the bathroom, ok?"

"Sure, only try to hurry back, there's only so long I can stand listening to these guys talk about rodeos without you," she called back over the noise of the jukebox and the chatter of the crowd.

Leigh headed back between the tables, picking her way through the mass of people. She was getting nearer to passing by Tim's table when he looked up, catching her eye so she smiled at him and waved a little. Then she saw Maggie watching her, glaring at her, before leaning in and saying something to Tim, laughing as she spoke before looking pointedly at Leigh with a triumphant smile on he face. Feeling insecure and knowing it was probably something bitchy about her, Leigh carried on through the crowd, her eyes downcast, catching a brief glimpse of Tim saying something in return before Maggie kissed him and she found herself wondering what he was saying, whether he was saying the same things he had used to say to her, telling the other girl that she was beautiful and special, or if he was laughing at her too.

Leigh sighed. Why was she even bothered, it shouldn't matter to her anymore, although somehow it still did. Trying to just be friends with Tim wasn't making her feel any better, was just making her feel worse, like poking at a cut or picking at a scab.

After coming out the bathroom Leigh walked out the back door, glad for a bit of space and relative quiet, just needing a few minutes to compose herself before she headed back inside. After a short time though she became aware that she was no longer alone.

"Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, a falsely bright smile on her face.

"Then why you out here?" Sylvia asked as she stood next to Leigh, her elbows resting on the railing.

"Just needed a bit of fresh air."

"Come on Leigh, I ain't dumb, I seen the way you were watching Tim earlier, and I seen his car parked up by yours the other day when I was driving home. Again. What in hell you doing – does Pete know?"

"No – and you don't need to let on to him, cause there's nothing going on to tell him."

"God you know I won't say anything, but if there's really nothing going on then why's it all such a big secret?"

"Because Pete would be just like you and not believe me. You know what he gets like when he's jealous and there ain't nothing going on to be jealous of."

"Tell me you ain't sleeping with Tim?"

"What? No! We just talk, about what we been doing in the week and stuff, he ain't tried nothing with me, I promise. Hell, I know it sounds crazy but I guess we're just... I don't know, I suppose we're friends."

"Well, I don't trust him, alright. I reckon if he comes round again you need to ask him what he really wants. And be careful, if I seen the car, what's to stop someone else seeing it - or him - and telling Pete? God sometimes you are so naïve, you need to stop seeing the best in everybody and realise that most people are only out for what they can get for themselves. Especially if they're guys like Tim Shepard."

"Yeah, ok, I suppose you're probably right. If he comes by again I promise I'll speak to him. You happy now?"

"Yeah. Now come on, cheer up honey and come back inside and get another drink, let's make the most of our night out, ok?"

xxxxxx

Midnight had come and gone and the crowd had thinned a little. Leigh was standing alone back near the bar feeling a little worse for wear as she half listened to Buck chatting with his cowboy friends nearby. It had been a long time since she'd drunk this much. Then she saw Tim walk up to the bar, resting his arms on the counter as he waited. She wondered where Maggie had gone, the majority of his crowd seemed to have left already.

"Bourbon," Tim requested. Buck poured the drink and set it in front of him as Leigh edged a little nearer to him.

"Evening," she smiled as she spoke. But Tim didn't reply to her, didn't even look at her, so she went to walk away unsure whether he hadn't heard her or was just choosing to ignore her and she walked down the other end of the bar to catch up with Sylvia again, just wanting to go home now.

Tim remained at the bar, sipping his bourbon and watching Leigh from the corner of his eye. He wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't spoken to her, just had a feeling he didn't want people watching the two of them together. He'd had a falling out with Maggie earlier, she'd wound him up, making some bitchy comment about Sylvia and Leigh being there, then later he had turned down her offer of going back to her place so she had flounced off home in a foul mood. He knew deep down he'd only turned her down because Leigh was there, because he didn't want her to watch him leaving with some other girl. Not that he was helping things any by ignoring her either. Everything was screwed up and for once he had no idea about how to put it right. He knew he probably didn't need any more to drink, but he was at a loss as to what else to do so he bought himself another.

A few minutes later Curly dropped down on the bar stool next to him, a nearly drunk beer in his hand and a smirk on his face.

"What d'you want kid?" Tim asked wearily, rubbing his forehead.

"You're doing a grand job of not being interested in her anymore Tim," he remarked, finishing his drink.

Tim glared at him, "Don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure, I believe you, that's why you were rowing with Maggie earlier and now you're sat right here watching her – nobody else might notice, but I know you better than most people and I can see it written all over you, you're so damn obvious." Curly laughed, putting his empty bottle on the bar and walking off towards the girls before Tim could respond.

"Hey ladies." Curly stopped by them and Tim watched as Leigh smiled and chatted with his brother, wishing it was that straightforward for him, catching random parts of their conversation. "So Happy birthday Sylvia," Curly gave her a quick kiss, before continuing, "Well I'm outta here, guess I'll see you girls around," before hugging Leigh, kissing her on the cheek, raising his eyebrows at his brother's scowling face as he caught his eye over Leigh's shoulder.

xxxxxx

Finally Leigh and Sylvia were leaving, the bar was nearly empty. There was only a handful of people left inside now, a couple of cowboys laughing too loudly, a drunk passed out in the corner who Buck was trying to wake up, some couples looking like they were heading up to the rooms upstairs for the night. Then as they walked towards the door Leigh was surprised to see Tim, alone, sat at a table in the far corner of the room by the window. Her confidence boosted by the drink, Leigh decided to go confront him.

"I'll just be a minute ok, wait outside for me?" and she quickly walked over to him before Sylvia could stop her. "Hey, thought we were supposed to be friends? Why did you ignore me earlier?"

Tim shrugged, still not speaking.

"Jesus Tim, just forget it ok?" Leigh snapped, frustrated by how he was acting. "Clearly I ain't good enough for you to even say hello to in public so don't bother anymore, I don't want you around anyways." She turned angrily, starting to walk away.

"Wait," he called out as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Why? What's the point? Seems pretty clear that you only want to know me when it suits you."

"It ain't like that and you know it Leigh."

"Then what is it like?" She asked, annoyed.

"I didn't speak to you 'cause I didn't know if I could trust myself not to get you into any trouble. You don't need people seeing us talk and making something out of nothing, telling your jerk of a boyfriend. But hell, if we're gonna be seen together might as well give anyone who's interested something to really talk about."

Tim moved closer to her and as he drew level he stopped, placing a hand on her arm before leaning into her and kissing her. He smiled at her, gently touching the side of her face before turning and walking out the door, enjoying how the clean smell of her soap and the soft fragrance of her perfume mingled on her skin, how her lips had felt so soft against his own.

God, thought Leigh, now she was even more messed up than before. Part of her wished Tim was still there, kissing her and holding her in his arms. But then she wondered why he had done it when he could barely even bring himself to speak to her earlier. And then there was Pete, her boyfriend, who she had thought she loved, but who she realised she had barely even thought about all night. Her head was all over the place going backwards and forwards over everything, when really it was all just such a mess.

The girls walked slowly home, Sylvia talking drunkenly about who she had seen and what she thought of the other girls and their outfits, how many guys had tried to chat her up, how much she missed Mike and how she wished he was there safe with her not thousands of miles away on the other side of the world. Then she turned her attention back to her friend.

"Say Leigh, tell me the truth this time, what's really going on with you and Tim? Don't tell me nothing, 'cause I was looking in the window and seen him kiss you on his way out the bar."

"Nothing. It really was just nothing," she replied, her voice flat, surprised at how disappointed she felt that he'd just left like that.

Sylvia looked at her friend, still not done with her questioning. "So if you're done with Tim and he's done with you, answer me this. When you're with Pete and he kisses you, how is it?"

"OK I guess, pretty nice."

"And just now, when Tim kissed you, how did you feel about that?"

Leigh looked away. "Sylv don't, you know what I'm gonna say but it isn't gonna happen. Tim don't love me, not how I would want him to anyway. He's got no place for me in his life, 'cause I don't want to just be some girl he screws around with when he's got some spare time. I want to mean more to him than that, like you do to Mike and the simple fact is I don't, I never did. I wasn't any different to all the others no matter what I told myself. It was just some stupid schoolgirl romance before, I can't believe I wasted all those months with him before I realised I didn't mean anything to him other than fucking around." She was upset now, on the verge of tears.

"Hell Leigh, I'm sorry, don't cry honey." Sylvia hugged her. "You know you were, are, different. In all the years my brother and him have been friends you're the only girl he ever dated for that long and never two-timed."

"Yeah? Well he still messed me around in the end though didn't he? And he seems to be spending all his time with Maggie Ford lately, so he must be real keen on her. Besides, I shouldn't care should I? – I mean I got Pete, I should be happy. I always thought things would be ok, that me and Pete had something good going on, but since Tim's come back to Tulsa I've been in a mess again. Reckon it would have been a whole lot easier if I never seen Tim Shepard again."

xxxxxx

Saturday 20th May 1967

Leigh walked slowly home from Sylvia's house, she was tired after their late night and still feeling unsettled from how things had ended. She found her mind wandering back to Sylvia's question – why did Tim keep coming round, and more importantly why did she let him? It had been well over a month now since he'd got home and he'd been round pretty much every week, so it was hardly just catching up any more. Why had he treated her like she didn't even exist for most of the night last night, and then done what he had on the way out? She had been trying to convince herself she was still happy with Pete and that it was just flattering to have Tim pay her some attention.

Finally she reached her building and began walking up the steps to the second floor, startled to find Tim, sat smoking, waiting on the top step.

"Hey darling, sorry to startle you. Just wanted to see that you were ok?" He smiled confidently at her from the top step looking like nothing had happened the night before.

"Hi, course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be? How long you been sitting there?" She fumbled for her keys, unlocking the door.

"Not that long. So, can I come in then?" he asked, standing.

She sighed, thinking she ought to be telling him no, but instead found herself agreeing with his request, although she sounded less than enthusiastic about it. "Yeah, I guess, being as you're here."

Tim followed her inside and she dropped her bag on the floor, walking into the kitchen.

"You want a coffee?"

"Sure."

She stood quietly, waiting for what seemed an eternity for the water to boil, watching Tim as he stood silently leaning against the counter. He sure was handsome, she thought. His dark hair and eyes had always made him striking, his scars had never made him seem any less attractive to her. Leigh decided it was now or never, she needed to clear things up between them, she couldn't carry on feeling used.

"Tim?" she started speaking uncertainly.

"Yeah darling?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, ask away."

"Just I promised Sylv I would if you came here again. So don't be mad at me." She pulled at the hem of her blouse distractedly as she looked at the floor, not wanting to look him in the eye.

He straightened up as he turned to face her, she sounded so uncomfortable. "I promise I won't be mad, so how about you just get it over with then?"

"Just… It's just… I kind of need to know. Why d'you keep coming here Tim? I mean last night in Buck's it seemed like you didn't want to know me for most the night, then when you were leaving you did ... well, you know... that, and when you're here, it's kind of different?"

He sighed, he knew it was time to find out how things were going to end up between them, one way or the other. "Reckon for the same reason that you don't tell Pete I come round near enough every week to see you."

"I..." But he interrupted before she could say anymore.

"It's alright, I'm here 'cause I want you Leigh and up 'til now spending a couple of hours here hanging out with you is the nearest I've got to having you back, because it's better than not getting to see you at all."

Before she could reply, Tim was kissing her, wrapping his arms around her, pleased that she was letting him.

It took a couple of minutes for the reality to hit her and Leigh pushed him gently away, her arms folded as she bit anxiously on her thumb.

"God, what the hell am I doing? I can't do this. I'm seeing someone. Jesus, it's just wrong."

"Hey, don't be upset. How can it be wrong if it's what we both want?" He hugged her close to him again, wanting to make things right, reassure her.

"Just, it makes me as bad as them girls me and Sylv used to bitch about. I ain't a cheat."

"Hell I know that, but like I said - how can it be wrong when we both want to be with each other?"

"'Cause it's not fair on Pete. Or Maggie. I ain't interested in sneaking around behind his back seeing some other guy."

"Then don't. Finish with him. If that's what you want. I don't want to share you with anyone. Come on, you know we belong together Leigh. We're better together."

Leigh sighed. "I'm sorry, but I just don't know what to do Tim. My head's all over the place, I don't know what to say, don't even know what to think anymore. I mean I want to say yes, but you hurt me a lot before, I need to figure out whether I'm prepared to take a chance that it might happen again. I think I just need you to go, give me some space to figure things out for myself, not push me into anything? You understand?"

"Yeah. Can't say I'm not disappointed, but I'll do it, if it means I've still got a chance." It was frustrating knowing it was out of his hands but he was well aware that pushing her to decide right there could well backfire on him. Instead, he kissed her once more then turned to leave, "Call me, when you've made a decision."

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks again to everyone reading, reviewing, following etc. Hope you liked this chapter, and it's not too out of character For Tim? I know he's the tough guy who always gets his own way, but even Tim can't always control every situation...  
>(Do I Wanna Know? is by Arctic Monkeys.)<p> 


	7. Through a Long and Sleepless Night

**Through a Long and Sleepless Night**

The day was dragging. Tim had gone back home, had tried to get some sleep to make up for the fact that he'd barely slept the night before for thinking about her. Only he'd just ended up staring at the ceiling, for what had felt like hours, until Curly had come wandering back into the room late in the afternoon.

"What you doing Tim?" Curly asked as he sat on his own bed, watching his brother.

"What's it look like?" Tim sat up, shifting on the bed so his back was against the wall, and lit a cigarette.

"From over here it looks a lot like you're feeling sorry for yourself."

"Really?" Tim replied, trying to keep his cool. It bothered Tim that he could never hide very much of what he was thinking from Curly. To pretty much everyone else he was unreadable, the tough hood who showed no emotion, only Curly always seemed to manage to see through it, wasn't always as dumb as a lot of people seemed to think he was.

"Yeah," Curly continued with a smirk, "you look just like Angela when she's not getting her own way about something, pouting and sulking in her room. What's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

Only it wasn't nothing. Now he'd had all that time to think, Tim was ill at ease, convinced Leigh wouldn't be in touch. She had probably just told him she needed some space to get rid of him earlier. Was she going to stick with that loser Myers who didn't like her speaking to other guys but aside from that seemed to treat her pretty good? Or would she pick him? What were the chances she'd take back Tim Shepard, the guy who'd cheated on her, and made her believe that he'd never ever cared about her? Hell he didn't even sound like a good bet to himself when he thought about it.

"Sure don't look like nothing."

"Fuck off Curly, what do you know? Are you hoping for a beating today? 'Cause I'm not in the mood for you to piss me off right now, alright?"

"I ain't gonna mess you around none Tim, just tell me what's going on. You got something going down that I don't know about?"

"Maybe." Maybe it would be easier if Curly believed it was something to do with the gang, some job, not actually anything important.

"Dammit, I thought you were gonna keep me involved in stuff now. I ain't a kid no more Tim, I proved to you I can handle whatever jobs you got going on, kept on top of things while you were gone, so quit treating me like an idiot."

Fed up with Curly's questions Tim pulled himself to his feet, stepping closer to his brother. Curly might be taller than him now but Tim knew he could still hold his own against his brother, intimidate him. "Maybe not everything's any of your business Curly. So why don't you just shut the hell up before I make you?"

Nine times out of ten Curly would back down when Tim challenged him, but he was willing to chance it today, was feeling almost as restless as Tim was and he also stood up. "Yeah? I'd like to see you try."

With that Tim laid into him, punching hard, sending Curly stumbling backwards towards his bed, before Curly pushed Tim back into the wall, hitting him in the ribs. Curly sure was stronger than he had realised. They fought for a few more minutes, before their mother began shouting at them to keep the noise down and Angela appeared in the doorway, scowling and bitching at the pair of them. Tim pushed past her out of the room. He had had enough anyway, had little enthusiasm left for the fight now because it wasn't taking his mind off of things or helping him relax any. He paused just outside the door.

"Just leave me alone Curly, and mind your own business, alright?"

Tim strode across the hall into the kitchen where he began looking in the cupboards for a glass, before finding one on the draining board, then rummaged in the drawer looking for some aspirins.

"You boys are getting too old for fighting with each other." remarked his mother. She was sitting at the table, a cigarette in her hand, the ashtray in front of her almost overflowing. She had her cigarette packs stacked to the side and the newspaper in front of her, reading it over and over, her latest obsession. She barely bothered with the television anymore, had swapped spending hours sitting in front of it for poring over any newspaper she could get her hands on.

"Well maybe he needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut." Tim filled the glass with water.

"Or maybe you both ought to be setting a better example for your sister," she continued, still not looking up as she continued reading and smoking.

Tim looked at Jean Shepard. Well, not Jean Shepard any more, Jean Locke since she'd got remarried to that lousy waste of space Harry. All three of her kids took after her, the same dark eyes, dark hair. He knew from the few photos his mother kept that she had been as beautiful as Angela once when she was younger. Not that she was really all that old now, not even forty yet. But she looked it, her eyes tired and her face lined. Her expression was hard and uncaring, caused by too many cigarettes, drinks and pain pills, along with two lousy husbands - one who'd left her and the other who treated her like shit. It had all added up to make her bitter, hard and prone to losing her temper too often and too easily.

"What, like you do? Least Angela knows she can count on us to look after her."

"Hell, you can barely look after yourself, how many times you been jailed now? I sure as hell didn't raise you to be no criminal. When you ever gonna settle down? You're coming up to twenty-one this year. By the time I was your age I already had you and your brother. About time you did something with your life, get yourself a family before you end up back in jail. I know you got girls you go fooling around with, maybe you need to figure out if one of them's good enough for you to keep before you end up getting trapped by some no good tramp."

"Yeah, cause you're a fine one to give out advice aren't you Ma? All them blokes you had passing through here after the old man left, then you end up marrying the one who treats you the worst. A real fine example for Angela to follow."

"You watch what you're saying to me Timothy, you got no right to talk to your own mother like that. You got no idea what it was like trying to raise you three kids on my own."

Tim bristled, hating being called by his full name. The only people who ever used it were his mother, cops or judges.

"I ain't saying nothing that's not true though, am I?"

"You know Harry's right, you really are a no good punk, if it wasn't for your brother and sister I'd throw you out of here for good." His mother stood angrily, Tim knew she was on the verge of losing it with him, but he couldn't be bothered to try to diffuse it today.

"You ain't gonna though are you Ma? 'Cause now I'm home you need me to give you money every time Harry's spent all his wages in the bar on payday and the rents due or the electricity bill needs paying don't you? I mean, where is he today? He ain't exactly keen to spend no time with you."

With that his mother slapped him hard in the face and then she was cursing and yelling at him, calling him every name she could think of, barely pausing for breath. He'd heard it all before, tuned it out as he popped the lid off the pill jar and swallowed the aspirin, knew that the best way - the only way - to deal with her was to let her run out of steam. Sure enough, she was soon sat back at the table, lighting another cigarette, reading her paper like nothing had happened.

Tim thought about leaving the house but there was only one place he wanted to go and he'd promised to give her some space and half a day probably wasn't going to cut it. He didn't have the patience to deal with other people today, recognised that he would probably only end up getting in some trouble if he did go out. So instead he ended up heading back into his room, sitting on the bed again and trying not to listen to Angela and Curly's bickering echoing across the hall from the sitting room where they were watching some crummy quiz on the television. He was glad when they finally quietened down, was pretty sure that one or both of them would be heading out the house soon anyway, being as it was Saturday night.

A short time later the phone started ringing prompting their bitching to start up again.

"Get it Angel."

"No you go Curly."

"Fuck off, it's probably one of your dumb girlfriends anyway."

"Well ain't gonna be no girl looking for you is it?"

"I said fuck off," Curly retorted. "Maybe it's Bryon?"

"Screw you, you know I dumped him."

"More likely he dumped you, got fed up of listening to you."

"One of you answer the damned phone!" Tim yelled across at them. He heard Angela's footsteps, her terse greeting as she answered it. Then she was there, sticking her head back round his door.

"Tim, it's for you, some girl."

He was at the phone extra quick.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. About last night, I'm real sorry." Tim's heart sank as he heard the voice on the line.

"Don't worry about it."

"Ok, so d'you want to maybe do something tonight?"

"No, not tonight."

"Oh, well maybe sometime soon?"

"Listen Maggie, we had some fun and all, but I ain't interested in anything more from you. Be better if you don't call again, understand?" Tim hung up the phone before she could reply.

Now all he had left to do was wait. Tim sighed, seemed like he was going to have another long, sleepless night ahead of him. Followed by another long, tedious day. He almost found himself wishing that it was Monday tomorrow so he didn't have the prospect of another long and empty day of nothingness to sit through.

xxxxxx

Sunday 20th May 1967

It was times like this when Leigh wished she had some family to depend on, to talk to. That she wasn't alone. She missed her father more than anyone realised, did a good job of coping on her own, most of the time. Sure she had some good friends, but it wasn't the same and she couldn't help but feel a little envious when she saw Sylvia with her parents and her brother supporting her whilst Mike was overseas, or Two-Bit's indulgent mother running round after him and his kid sister. At the end of the day there was no one left who loved her unconditionally like Frank had done.

So now she was waiting. Killing time until she saw Pete. Their long-standing arrangement was meeting up on a Sunday afternoon, once he'd caught up on a couple of hours sleep from the Saturday night-shift, then they'd go out someplace before ending up back at her place, or his. She used to look forward to Sundays, she thought ruefully. Only today she was feeling decidedly uneasy about it all, was almost wishing he wouldn't turn up to meet her, definitely wasn't looking forward to the conversation she had mapped out in her mind.

Whether or not things worked out with Tim, their encounters over the weekend had only served to highlight to her that she was maybe settling by staying with Pete_. _It was quarter to six now, it felt like the clock was going backwards. As she waited her mind wandered back to when she'd first started seeing Pete, things had all seemed so straight forward then.

_December 1966_

_Leigh had been at the top of the stairs, wedging open the apartment door when she had heard Two-Bit yelling out to someone. "Hey, get over here and give me hand will you?"_

_"What you doing Two-Bit?" The other guy replied._

_"Helping a friend."  
><em>

_"So why don't your friend help you carry it then?"_

_"'Cause I ain't the kind of guy who makes a lady carry heavy stuff up two flights of stairs. 'Sides, reckon you could do with the exercise."_

_Wondering who he was talking to, Leigh headed back down the steps. _

_"Hey Two-Bit, the doors are all opened ready and there's nothing in the way so _I'm ready to give you a hand with that now_." _

_"'S'all right O'Connell, found a willing volunteer to help me."_

_She had joined them, seeing Pete as she reached the back of the truck. "Oh hey Pete, looks like you were unlucky then, in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's real kind of you to help."_

_"No problem Leigh." He spoke gruffly and she couldn't remember seeing him in a long while, probably not since Frank's funeral service.  
><em>

_Leigh had watched as between them Pete and Two-Bit carried the table and couple of chairs up into the small pokey apartment, placing them in the kitchen._

_"Thanks guys, and Two-Bit, you be sure to thank Darry for letting us borrow the truck. You want that drink now?"_

_"Yeah, I'll tell him. You got any beer? Seem to remember that's what you promised me when you sweet talked me into this O'Connell."_

_"Sure, in the fridge. You want one Pete?" _

_"Um no, it's alright, I guess I better get going. I'll see you around Leigh." He headed out the door, but she quickly caught up with him at the top of the staircase._

_"Hey Pete."_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Thank you, for helping out."  
><em>

_"'It's all right, I hardly did a lot."_

_"Well, I sure appreciate it, ok? You take care now."_

_"Yeah, you too."_

_xxxxxx_

_Leigh had kicked off her shoes and was pottering about in the kitchen when there was a knock at the door._

_"Oh. Hi," she said, taken aback to see him back there._

_"Hi." Pete looked away, looked a little nervous, before continuing. "Just wanted to maybe talk to you about something if you got time?"_

_"Well, alright. Do you want to come in?" He seemed a little unsteady and she figured he'd been drinking someplace since he'd left the apartment earlier._

_"So Leigh, I just wanted to ask you something."_

_"Oh, Ok. Well ask away I guess." She smiled at him, wondering why he seemed so nervous, he had always been cocky and confident in the past down the boxing club or out in the town._

_"Are you seeing anyone?"_

_"No," she replied, surprised.  
><em>

_"And you're not holding out for Shepard – waiting for him to get out of jail or nothing?"_

_She shook her head. "No, he made it quite plain that we were finished."_

_"Oh, that's good," he stepped a little closer to her. "You know, I always had a bit of a thing for you, back when me and Wayne used to come down the club. Remember that time you got me to invite Sylv to some party?"_

_"Yeah, I remember." She cringed a little at the memory, how it had all gone wrong and Sylvia had ditched her at the party and got back with Dallas, leaving her with Pete, making it seem like she was after him._

_"Well, I only agreed to it so you would come too. Only I made a real mess of things back then. Thought maybe you liked me a little bit only I was too scared of your old man to take it any further and I spent too long listening to Wayne about who I should hang around with. Then it was too late and you were with Tim."_

_"What you trying to say Pete?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper._

_"I was wondering if you might come out with me sometime? See how things go. I ain't no punk no more Leigh. I got a decent job, don't do the gang stuff. Got out of that as soon as Wayne left town. So what do you say, can I take you out tomorrow night?"_

_He stepped closer still, pushing the loose hair back behind her ear, waiting for her to answer._

_"Yeah, ok, that'd be nice." she replied, and she actually thought it would be.  
><em>

_"Ok, I'll pick you up at seven?"_

_"Yeah, that'd be great."_

_He kissed her quickly before stepping away. "Well, I guess I better go, before I blow it again before we even been out. See you tomorrow Leigh."_

_"Bye Pete," she said, watching him walk away, a genuine smile on her face for the first time in months._

Hearing footsteps on the staircase outside Leigh realised all that hopefulness was long gone. She had thought she'd loved him, could have been happy with Pete. Hell, she probably would have been if Tim hadn't shown up again.

"Hey babe, you ready? Got a couple things I gotta do." He stood smiling at her from the doorway, full of energy and impatience to get on with whatever it was he had planned.

"Yeah." Leigh grabbed her purse, followed him down the stairs. "Where we going Pete?" she asked as he started the car.

"Just need to catch up with Jimmy about a couple of things. We'll call in to Murphy's, then I'm all yours the rest of the night," he replied, a grin on his face and his hand on her leg as he drove. She knew she was going to have to wait to talk to him, no way she would have that conversation in the bar, he at least deserved her telling him somewhere private.

Frustratingly, most of Pete's friends were also around and he seemed in no hurry to leave. Usually she would go across and join Pete when he spent too long with his buddies but tonight Leigh sat quietly in the corner, watching as Pete drank another beer, deep in conversation with Jimmy and a couple of other guys. They looked serious and their discussion seemed to be going on and on. Nervous, Leigh lit a cigarette. She didn't smoke all that often, mainly when she felt stressed, or was out drinking, or just to be sociable with her friends. Right now she just really wanted something to do, something to focus on. Disappointed, she saw Pete order another beer, he must have had four or five by now.

Finally he was crossing the room in her direction, sitting on the bench seat next to her, real close.

"You ok babe, you're real quiet tonight?"

Leigh shook her head, "Not really."

"You want to go?" Pete ran his hand through her hair, moving even closer, his other hand on the small of her back. "Could head back to mine, have some time on our own?" he asked as he grinned at her, then kissed her.

Leigh shook her head, "Sorry, but I don't feel so great, I probably should just go home. Sorry I ain't much company."

"Yeah? You want me to drive you?"

"You don't have to." She just wanted to get away, had lost her nerve for it now. It could wait, another day.

"I know, I'll take you."

Leigh sat quietly looking out the car window, twisting her hands nervously together as Pete drove.

"Thanks Pete." She smiled weakly at him, went to get out the car without kissing him goodbye, had opened the car door and was about to step out when she felt his hand on her arm.

"What's really bothering you?"

Sorry, but I can't do this anymore, I can't keep seeing you." Leigh spoke real quickly then got out the car, disappointed but not surprised to hear him following her. She stopped on the sidewalk, resigned to the fact he was right there too.

"What do you mean?" he asked, a stunned expression on his face. "Is this about tonight, 'cause we went there? Hell, I'm sorry I got caught up with the guys."

She shook her head.

"Is there someone else?"

"I just can't do it any more, I don't want to mess you around none Pete, I'm sorry alright? I just… It just ain't gonna work out with us."

Before he could stop her, Leigh hurried away. Glad to be inside, she locked the front door before sinking down on the sofa, feeling a mixture of relief, and doubt, and hopefulness and guilt. Had she just made the best or worst decision?

* * *

><p>AN: Huge thanks to anyone who's reading, following, reviewing etc. I would love to know what you think of this one... hope you liked the little look at the Shepard family at home..? Anyways, 'Through a long and sleepless night' belongs to The Divine Comedy.


	8. Hell of a Season

**Hell of a Season**

Monday 21st May 1967

"Hey Shepard! Watch where you're walking!" Tim heard a thud as he stopped dead and looked up, saw Darrel Curtis grinning at him from near the bottom of the ladder.

"Morning Curtis, what's on?"

"Nothing much aside from you nearly ending up under that bundle of roofing that's just pitched off the roof there. You alright? Seem a little distracted today?"

"Yeah, I guess." Tim had already nearly made a cock-up earlier with the wiring, had noticed just in time, before the boss had - he really needed to get his brain in gear today and focus.

"You had a busy weekend or something?" Darrel asked with a smirk.

"Something like that," Tim replied and saw Darrel smile a little more broadly, "only probably not how you're thinking."

xxxxxx

Five o'clock, finally. Tim drove away from work towards the East side of town and Charlie's bar, glad work was over for the day. He hadn't had a day that bad since he'd started the job and he knew he needed to sort his head out before it got him in any real trouble.

So now he was going to find Leigh, the not knowing was definitely driving him a little crazy. Tim knocked on her door, disappointed that there was no reply. Deciding to wait he sat down on the top step and lit another cigarette. Taking a last drag before stubbing it out against the railings, Tim stood, looking up and down the street but there was no sign of her. Sitting back down he lit yet another cigarette and wondered how long to wait. Maybe she wasn't coming straight home from work after all.

Then he spotted Leigh crossing the street towards home, a grocery bag in her arms. Looked like she'd been over at the store talking to Mathews then, and Tim could easily imagine his opinions on it all, could hear Two-Bit telling her to stay well away from Tim Shepard 'cause all he'd ever brought her was trouble. He watched uneasily as she walked nearer. Tim wondered if all this felt as important to her as it did to him, even though he didn't exactly understand himself why it felt like such a big deal.

xxxxxx

Looking up as she went to climb the steps, Leigh noticed Tim sat there. Shifting the bag into one arm she ran her other hand nervously through her hair, before smoothing her blouse over her hips. Hopefully him being there was a good sign.

"Hi Tim,"

"You ok?"

"Yeah," Leigh couldn't stop smiling at him, felt like a dumb kid as she stood there staring at him, hugging the bag close to her. "Getting to be a habit, finding you sitting here when I get home."

"Sorry for just turning up. I know I said I'd give you some time and everything, only…"

"It's alright."

"I just need..."

But she interrupted again before he could continue, "Tim, it's alright, I'm real pleased you're here. Was going to try to speak to you later anyways."

"So does that mean you'll give us another go?" he asked, standing up.

"Yes. That is, if you really meant what you said to me the other day?"

"Course I did."

Leigh reached into her pocket, finding her keys. "You want to come in then? Reckon we got some catching up to do."

xxxxxx

"God, you're so beautiful."

They had barely made it through the door of her apartment before Tim was kissing Leigh, her groceries dropping forgotten to the floor as he took her in his arms. Pushing the door shut he leant her back against it, his hands holding her close as he kissed her again and again, unable to wait any longer to hold her.

"You know, I've wanted to kiss you, be with you again since that day I ran into you in the diner," he whispered as his hands slid across her body, making her catch her breath, as they stood there together.

"Yeah, me too," she replied with a smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck, returning his kisses.

xxxxxx

Pete was in Murphy's, well on his way to a hangover. The last thing he needed was Jimmy bothering him tonight, it probably would have been a better idea to just buy some booze from the liquor store, then he wouldn't have had to deal with whatever minor issues that needed sorting now.

"Hey there Pete, surprised you're here tonight."

"What you want, Jimmy?" he asked, irritably. "You don't need to come to me with every little problem, you know that."

"Nothing. Everything's going just fine this week," Jimmy glanced around, there was no one close by to hear him as he continued, "matter of fact it's better than fine, we could probably do even more next week if you can get the goods sorted. Now I just want a beer." He signalled to the barman then settled down next to Pete, chatting inanely for a few minutes, before he said, "Say, you'll never guess what I saw on my way over here?"

"No, guess I won't," Pete answered bluntly, he didn't have the patience for dealing with Jimmy's games tonight.

"Shepard's car, parked down the street a ways from Charlie's bar. Thought that was a little out his normal territory. You know what he's doing round there?"

"Yeah. Reckon I do."

"You want me to look into for you?"

"No, not this time. I'll handle this one myself, alright?"

A short time later Pete headed out, drove back through the neighbourhood and saw the car, just where Jimmy had told him it would be. He drove past, parked on the next block. He was pretty sure that he knew exactly where Tim would be, just needed to confirm it for himself, so he strolled back into Charlie's bar, ordered a beer. The place was virtually empty, it was easy to see Shepard wasn't there so that just left the one other place on that street where he was going to be, his earlier disappointment at how things had worked out turning to anger now he knew the reason behind it all.

xxxxxx

Tuesday 22nd May 1967

Tim awoke with a start the next morning, with no clue where he was. In his half asleep state he knew he wasn't at home, the room and the bed just weren't right. For a half second he had that sick feeling that he was maybe back at McAlester. Then he remembered where he was, relaxing as he let out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Tim looked across at the girl, _his girl_, still sleeping beside him, then shifted to look at her alarm clock, it was nearly six am.

"Hey." She smiled shyly at him as she woke, disturbed by his movement.

"Morning." He grinned back at her, feeling content for the first time in as long as he could remember as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

xxxxxx

Pete drove silently back across town, knowing he was going to find Shepard's car in the exact same spot it had been in the night before, even though he half hoped it wouldn't be.

Shame things had to end up like this, she had been kind of nice to be with, always looked good. And she'd been good company, as well as smart enough to not ask him too many questions about things she didn't need to know about.

But no girl was going to make an idiot out of him.

xxxxxx

"I wish we could stay here all day."

"Yeah, would be good, only there's that small problem of work."

"Yeah, speaking of which I reckon I need to head home, need a clean shirt and all." Tim sat up disconsolately, looking around for his clothes, while Leigh knelt next to him on the bed, the covers around her as she pulled on her own clothes.

"Well I'll still be here later. Will you come back and see me after work? Only might be an idea to keep things a bit low-key for now, you don't need no trouble messing up your parole."

"Yeah ok. And I'll be back later, I promise." They stood in the doorway as Tim slowly kissed her goodbye, tempted just to blow off the day at work and take her back to bed, instead forcing himself to walk away. He left with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, sure today was going to be a better day.

xxxxxx

Leigh tidied the kitchen, deciding to make some breakfast, when moments later there was a knock on her door.

"Hey, you back already? Guess you really couldn't stay away. Did you forget something?" she said laughing, as she opened it, her face falling as she realised it wasn't Tim.

"Oh sorry sweetheart, guess you were expecting someone else?" he sneered as he pushed her back into the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Jesus Pete, I'm sorry, but what are you doing here anyways?"

"Yeah you will be fucking sorry, you cheap fucking tart. How long was this going on behind my back?"

"How long's what been going on?" Leigh tried to bluff it, unsure what Pete actually knew. Maybe Tim had been gone before he had arrived.

"You. And Shepard."

Her heart sank, clearly Pete had been outside already. "Only since yesterday, there wasn't anything going on when we were together, I swear."

"Yeah right. So after you finished with me Sunday, you coincidentally ran into your loser ex and then just happened to fall into bed with him last night. You must think I'm stupid if you expect me to believe that Leigh."

"I'm sorry but it's the truth. I mean, course I've seen him around different places a few times, but I only ever talked to him some. Then when he asked me to get back with him I finished it with you. I swear I didn't do nothing with him before though, only talked to him. Please Pete, you got to believe me."

His mood worried Leigh, she had never seen Pete this mad and it scared her. He seemed different, harder and meaner, not like the guy she'd spent all that time with at all.

"Hell, don't reckon I should have ever believed a word that came out of your slutty mouth. I mean you stood out there and told me there wasn't anyone else. Who else you been doing while I been working my ass off every weekend? Just Shepard, or have you had a whole parade of guys in and out of here that you been screwing around with?"

Pete stepped closer to her so she was trapped in the small kitchen area. Trying to put some space between them Leigh stepped back, finding herself stuck with her back against the table.

"Pete, please. There's been no one else. Honest."

"You know I only came round here this morning to talk to you, so imagine my surprise to see Tim Shepard heading out the door grinning like he's won the fucking lottery. No one makes a fool outta me Leigh, especially not some fucking easy broad." There was no need for her to know he had already suspected - well knew - before this morning that the pair of them were together, his sole aim at that moment was to make her feel as bad as possible.

"I'm sorry Pete, what you want me to say?"

He grabbed her roughly by the arm, leaning his body into hers before holding her face with the other hand. His face was close to hers and she couldn't look away as he continued questioning her. "Tell me the truth, did you ever want me or were you always wishing it was him?"

"I... I," she stuttered, too flustered to get the words out.

"Guess that about answers it then," he said angrily as he let go of her.

"No, Pete, it wasn't like that, I really did like being with you, please believe me." She was crying now, tears silently rolling down her cheeks.

"Stop fucking lying to me!" he yelled, hitting her hard across the face. "God, I can't believe I ever thought you were something special, pair of you deserve each other." He spat the words at her, pushing her roughly so that she stumbled back against the table, before storming out.

Pulling herself together, Leigh ran to the bathroom. She felt sick, stunned. She had never had a guy hit her before. Her hands were shaking as she looked at herself in the mirror, there was an angry bruise starting to form down the side of her face. It wasn't as big as she thought but it was still going to take a hell of a lot of make up to hide it before going to work.

Managing to calm herself a little she grabbed her purse and ran down to the payphone on the corner, feeling that she needed to warn Tim, in case Pete went looking for him too.

xxxxxx

"Hey Tim, where you been?"

"Out," Tim replied, surprised to see his brother up so early. "Any coffee left there Curly?"

"Yeah." He poured a cup and handed it to his brother. "So you been with Maggie?"

"Nope."

"Jesus Tim, someone else? Don't know how you do it." Curly grinned admiringly at his older brother. "Who you been with now?"

"None of your business," Tim remarked. As he began to walk away the phone started ringing. "Get that before it wakes up Ma, I need to shower."

xxxxxx

"Hey Tim," Curly shouted out to his brother, hurrying in to the hall to catch him as he realised Tim was heading towards the front door.

"What is it? I ain't got time for no shit Curly, already told you I can't afford to be late."

"That phone call earlier. Was some girl, said to tell you that Pete knows."

Tim came to a stop and turned to face his brother, studying him more closely now. "That all she said?"

"Yeah, didn't even say who she was, just sounded shook up, like it was important you know. Why, what's going on? Was it Leigh? Sure sounded like her - you got something going down with Myers I don't know about?" Then an idea dawned on Curly, "Was that where you were last night - with her?"

"Curly, just stay out of it alright? It ain't nothing for you to worry about," Tim snapped, slamming the door behind him as he left.

xxxxxx

It was half past four when Tim finished work for the day, he had worked through his breaks so he could get away a little earlier and he was hoping to catch Leigh as she left work. He reached the centre of town with a couple of minutes to spare before five, then waited down the street from her offices until he saw people starting to leave. Getting out the car he walked closer, trying to see her amongst the group of people heading out. The crowd thinned a little and he still hadn't spotted her. Just when he was starting to feel unsettled he saw her, alone, not noticing him as she watched the traffic while she tried to cross the busy street.

"Leigh!"

"Oh hi." She was soon at his side and she quickly hugged him then stepped away, her expression was worried and she kept her eyes downcast, not looking him in the eye.

"What's the matter? What in hell was that message all about, how'd he find out?"

"He just turned up at my place this morning, claimed he came by to patch things up only he saw you leaving, he was real mad. Did he come looking for you?"

"No, not seen anything of him. So what happened?"

Leigh looked around at the people milling past them on the busy street as all the office workers from the local businesses hurried off home. "Look, can we go someplace else? Don't exactly want to talk about it here in the street."

"Yeah, come on, the car's down here."

Sat in the car, Tim didn't start the engine, instead turned to look at her.

"So tell me what happened." Tim leant over, noticing the hint of a bruise on her face, brushing her hair back, realising now why she looked different, her hair clipped so it hung across her face more, and she had more make up than usual, trying to disguise it. "What the hell did he do to you?" he asked, running his hand lightly down her face, doing his level best to sound calm.

"Nothing much. Can we please go?"

xxxxxx

"You want a drink or something?"

"Maybe just some water, probably ought to take some more Aspirin," Leigh answered, looking in her bag for the pills.

"Sit down if you like." Tim nodded towards the chairs at the kitchen table. "Does it hurt a lot?"

"It's alright," she replied, feeling a little uncomfortable here in his home, choosing instead to stand next to him with her back against the kitchen counter. "It's not so bad now, it's just a bit sore, and I got a bit of a headache."

He passed her the glass, slipping an arm around the back of her waist, his hand resting on her hip. "So tell me exactly what happened, from when I left this morning."

"Ok." She looked straight ahead as she spoke, it was easier than looking at him and her voice sounded calmer than she expected as she relayed it to Tim. "Well just a couple of minutes after you left, there was a knock on the door, I just thought it was you coming back for something so..."

By the time she had finished speaking Tim was on the verge of losing it, his left hand clenched into a fist and jammed in his pocket as he tried to keep calm. "He's a fucking coward. Hell, if he wants trouble,"

"Tim, please," Leigh interrupted, turning to face him. "That's probably exactly what he's expecting you to do. I know it ain't what you'd choose to do, but just ignore him ok? He's not worth going back to jail over and I don't want you getting into trouble because of me."

"Jesus, I won't get caught doing nothing." He ran his hand over her bruised face again. It made him sick, what kind of asshole hit girls? It was just something you didn't do, no matter what.

"Please? I mean we just got things straight between us. Promise me you won't do anything?"

Tim sighed, just leaving it went against every instinct that he had but he could see she needed him to reassure her, not give her more to worry about. Only before he could answer Angela came into the room.

"Hey Tim, don't suppose Ma's made any dinner?"

"No, don't suppose she has," Tim replied, irritated by her arrival.

"And I'm guessing you and Curly ain't done nothing either?"

"Only got here two minutes ago Angel, and I ain't even seen Curly yet, or Ma, you know where she is? Besides, dinner's you're job ain't it?"

"Yeah, ok. She had an appointment. I think. Well I'm gonna start making something, if we got anything. You eating here Tim?"

Angela looked at her brother then the girl standing next to him. Something had to be off, Tim didn't usually bring his women home, or at least if he did then he usually only took them to his bedroom, didn't stand around chatting with them in the kitchen.

"Yeah."

Leigh felt a little uncomfortable as Angela continued to stare at her."Guess I should probably get going."

"Hell, Angel's cooking ain't that bad, stay a while and I'll take you home later."

"Yeah, don't go on account of me," Angela grinned, wanting to find out more. If her brother rarely brought girls home, then he never asked them to stay for dinner.

The front door banged shut and Curly shouted out a hello, as he and his mother returned to the house. They heard him head to the sitting room and switch on the television as Jean appeared in the doorway.

"Hey Ma,"

"Timothy. Who's your friend Angela?"

"Her names Leigh, only she's Tim's friend Ma, not mine," Angela said, smirking at her brother who was glaring back at her.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Leigh offered, smiling, trying not to sound as awkward as she felt.

"Finally listening to your mother then?" Jean remarked, looking more closely at her son and this girl standing too close to him, noticing his arm around her for the first time.

"Jesus Ma, not now, alright? Why don't you go lie down for a while, you must be feeling tired after going to the docs?" Tim suggested, not wanting his mother giving her opinions on him in front of Leigh.

"Yeah, yeah, just pass me my cigarettes first. And my paper."

"Here you go," Tim picked up her things. "I just need to speak to Curly about something, alright?" Tim continued, before guiding his mother out the door towards her room.

Left alone and feeling uncomfortable at being thrown into things with his family, Leigh turned to his sister, decided to try to smooth things over. "You want a hand Angela?"

"Sure, there probably ain't much but reckon we can make something worth having between us." Angela checked the fridge, pulling out a few things. "Can you grab me the big pan from in there?"

Angela watched the older girl as she reached into the cupboard. She looked on edge, and Angela was surprised to see the bruises on Leigh's arm as she pushed up her cardigan sleeves, and the hint of more marks on her face beneath the make up.

They stood, talking a little, as they prepared the meal.

"So how's high school going?"

"Pretty lame, sucks to have Curly as your brother when all the teachers expect me to be as much trouble as he was."

"Yeah, guess it would. Don't suppose Tim's reputation helps with the staff either?"

"Well, he wasn't never in so much trouble in school as Curly, or at least he didn't get caught so often. So you two back together then?"

"Yeah." Leigh couldn't help smiling as she answered.

Angela paused looking at Leigh again before continuing to add things to the pan. "Them bruises, I'm guessing it wasn't my brother that did to you?" She took a sideways glance at Leigh as she asked, saw the surprise in the other girl's expression as she realised what Angela had asked.

"What? No, not Tim, he's never been like that with me."

"Nah, didn't think it would be, he's always says it's only losers that hit women."

"Yeah, my daddy always used to say the same thing to me."

"So who did it then?"

"Pete. Guess he wasn't overjoyed that I broke up with him, especially not for your brother."

xxxxxx

"So you're back with her then? About time Tim, maybe now you'll be less of a pain in the ass to live with."

"Just fucking shut up Curly and listen."

"Jesus Tim, what's your problem?"

"Myers. Need to know everything he's in to, I need to finish it now."

"What so taking his girl ain't enough?"

"Getting back with Leigh ain't nothing to do with it Curly, she don't know about none of that shit between us so you just remember to keep your mouth shut in front of her. I want information, the sooner the better. You've all had enough time, I want something useful , get everyone together Thursday so I can work something out. Hopefully he's distracted, so it should be a good time to hit back once and for all."

* * *

><p>AN: Big thanks for reading this far and for anyone who's reviewed, followed, favourited etc. before and I hope you liked this chapter too. 'Hell of a Season' is from The Black Keys.


	9. Quiet Life

**Quiet Life**

Thursday 24th May 1967

Things remained quiet over the next couple of days, neither Tim nor Leigh had seen anything more of Pete and she had started to relax a little about it, had mentioned to Tim how she hoped that Pete had just lost it the other day and that now it was out of his system he would calm down and leave them alone.

In contrast, Tim wasn't convinced that things were really that simple. Not that he voiced those thoughts to Leigh though. There had been bad feeling on and off for years between his gang and the River Kings and this whole thing had just added yet another layer to the whole thing. It had started gradually, with all the years of petty fights over territory and control of their respective parts of the East side of town and to maintain their reputations. These irritations increased with Wayne's growing dislike of Tim, and became surrounded by Tim's need to get even after the brothers had got him jailed. Until now it was all topped off now with Pete's anger over Tim being with Leigh.

It was just a seemingly never-ending cycle of one thing on top of another, an aspect of Tim's life about which Leigh remained virtually unaware of the details of. There had always been parts of his life he hadn't shared with Leigh or any girl, and there were things that he wasn't particularly proud of or she didn't need to know and that was how Tim wanted things to stay. So it was seven in the evening and he was off to meet the rest of the gang at Bucks, determined to get some resolution this time, once and for all.

Getting himself a drink, Tim chatted briefly with Buck, passing the time of day, before heading into the back room of the bar which housed the pool table and just a few tables and chairs. The bar wasn't busy yet, but at least in here they could be sure of who was listening in. Curly and Ryan were already in there, laughing and drinking as they played pool, quietening down a little as Tim entered the room.

"So what did you manage to find out Curly?" Tim asked, leaning against the wall as he watched the pair of them.

"Not a lot different." Curly looked away as he spoke, fiddled with his pool cue while trying to look like he was concentrating on the game rather than look at his brother, knowing Tim was looking annoyed with him already.

"It's Danny who's got the good info." Ryan spoke up, turning to face Tim as he picked up his beer. "He'll be here any minute, he's just finishing up over at the Standard. He can tell you the details, but turns out that Pete's been running half the drugs racket on this side of town these last six months or so."

"How come? When's he had the time to put that in place? How come none of you picked up on it sooner?" Tim was full of questions, impatient for answers.

Curly shrugged, feeling more uncomfortable as Tim frowned at him, relieved to see Danny and Jamie head in to the room so he would no longer be the focus of his brother's irritation.

"So what's the deal then Danny?" Tim asked, straight to business, with no time for pleasantries. He dragged up a chair to the nearest table, the other guys following suit, watching as Danny expanded on the details and Tim questioned him.

"Turns out he done a deal with some out-of-town outfit. They supply, he sells it. Well he don't exactly sell it himself, but he does take the money over to them and collects the gear."

"Who sells it then?"

"Just some no name losers he's got. They don't even know they're selling it for Myers I don't think. Jimmy Fry sets it up through some other contacts of his, and then them guys mostly just use a bunch of kids to sell it. Guess they're easy to burn if they get caught 'cause they don't know none of the set up or nothing."

"When's he do his deals then to get the gear?"

"Weekends mostly."

"So him telling Leigh he was working night shifts – was that all bull?"

"Yeah. I mean he actually does work up the power plant in the week, suppose it's good cover to have a proper job and all. He does do the occasional extra night shift up there but mostly he's off buying his new stock from up state somewhere, or keeping in with the bosses there."

"And how d'you find this out? Seems a little convenient that now I'm looking for hard information that you bring me all this."

"Nah, I ain't double-crossing you if that's what you think Tim." Danny grinned, before he continued his explanation. "We get all sorts of people coming through the garage. I'd heard rumours before but I never thought too much about it, because it was never in our territory or nothing. You'd be amazed what people talk about sometimes when they forget you're there filling the tank or working on their motors." He shrugged a little as Tim stared at him, wanting more information. "Look, like I said I heard a few things in the last couple months which didn't quite add up so when you wanted more information I did a little more digging. Got a second cousin works up at the power plant, asked him what jobs were like up there and stuff, said I had a friend looking for work, and it didn't seem straight that Myers would get that many extra shifts with all the staff he said they got on the books. They aren't short of staff no more, haven't been for months."

What so he was selling the girl a load of crap, week in week out, about where he was and she just believed it?" Ryan asked with a half laugh, watching Tim for his reaction.

"Sounds that way," Danny replied.

"Well I don't buy it. Reckon she knows more than she's letting on," Ryan continued, his tone sceptical.

"Well I reckon Myers is a pretty convincing liar. She ain't exactly no dumb chick," Curly offered, trying to break the building tension. He could see Tim was getting pissed that Ryan was taking a dig at him, making it sound like Tim didn't know what was going on.

"Anyways," Danny continued, "then me and Jamie found some kid dealing down near the river yesterday, made out we was interested, wasted some cash buying some shit off him just so he'd talk to us a bit."

"Yeah? What d'you say to him?"

"Don't worry, we were careful, didn't give him nothing true about us," Jamie said, "just he let on that his bosses get new gear in every weekend, then gave us enough of a description of someone he'd seen his boss with that made us think one of them was dear old Jimmy, and Jimmy definitely ain't smart enough to work it by himself. So we figured it's Myers behind it, they're still tight, spend too much time together for it not to be him."

Ryan spoke up again. "Guess it could be true. After you were first in jail there were some rumours that Wayne was running something similar, that it got shut down when he took the deal and got shipped out. Would make sense if Pete had just picked it up again at some point, after all the police interest had all blown over. He would have had the contacts in place already, known how it had all run when his brother was in charge. Reckon he's just as dangerous as Wayne ever was, maybe more so 'cause he hides his mean side better."

"Ok. So next question is, how do I put him out of business for good?"

"No. I gotta question for you first Tim," Ryan interrupted.

"What?" Tim asked icily, not liking Ryan's continual undermining of him.

"Is this about getting even with Myers for getting you sent down. Or is this about the fact he's been screwing around with that girl? 'Cause I need to know you got your head straight and you ain't gonna land us all in it if we go after him. You don't need to get blind sided by some broad and whether you're gonna get some from her. For all you know she could be playing you, setting you up for Myers."

Tim was on his feet, Ryan too, quicker than Tim expected. Furious, he slammed Ryan back into the wall, one hand gripping the front of Ryan's shirt, the other drawn back ready to punch. Ryan definitely needed putting in his place, it seemed to Tim like he'd forgotten he was no longer running things now Tim was back. A half glance around the room told him that Curly would back him if needed, Danny too most likely. Jamie was harder to read, might feel the need to back Ryan being as they were family, but for once it didn't look like he was desperate for a fight. Tim felt pretty secure in his role as leader, despite what Ryan might feel about it.

"Look, all that's resolved itself now, she ain't nothing to do with this so how about you shut your mouth and leave her out of it?" Tim's voice was low and calm but his displeasure was obvious as he continued to speak. "I'm interested in getting even with Myers, for him and his brother sending me down, plain and simple. Seems Like Wayne's been taken care of already, so that just leaves Pete. So you gonna help me or not Lang? 'Cause if you don't like the way I'm running things you're more than welcome to walk out the door right now and let us get on with things. Now is that clear enough for you?"

"Yeah, yeah. Course I'll do it, just needed to make sure it wasn't all just about you getting laid is all." Tim let go of Ryan, then stood watching as Ryan straightened his shirt, glaring back at Tim.

"Ok then, so any ideas?" Tim looked around the room at the other guys.

"Could maybe work over some of his dealers, as a start. If we rob 'em of the gear, then Myers'll lose money. Do it often enough then it'll cause him grief with his business partners. Could even sell it ourselves."

"First part's a good idea Curly, but you ain't dealing nothing. Rob them and burn it. Or ditch it in the river. There's no way you're selling shit like that though."

"So when do we start?"

"Guess we might as well get started straight away, no point in putting it off. Drink up Curly. So where d'you see that kid selling the gear Jamie?"

"Down near the river, just into the King's territory, near where them hippy kids got that house they hang around in."

"Good, just need to find a couple more of their dealers and it'll be making some progress. Me and Curly'll see who we can find tonight, you guys do some more tomorrow. Hopefully we can hit a few of them before Myers realises what's going on and they're still all working alone. We'll meet up back here Saturday, give me an update."

xxxxxx

Tim drove, while Curly messed with the radio, humming along to all sorts of rubbish. Tim would have preferred some peace, but at least if Curly kept himself entertained with the music it meant he wasn't asking Tim a hundred and one questions. Then the news started up and Curly snapped the radio back off.

"So you reckon you'll sort this shit with Myers for good this time Tim?"

"That's the idea. Just can't keep going on looking over my shoulder and wondering what he might do next. I mean it ain't just myself I got to take care of. I got Leigh I got to think about after what he done to her. Then there's you, and Angel too. You'd all be fair game for him, he don't stick to no rules, got no honour about him. He's just a low life punk."

"So you think you can fix it then?" Curly looked out the car window, knew he was most likely annoying the hell out of Tim by questioning him, but at least he'd kept his worries to himself and waited until it was just the two of them, not asked it in front of the other guys.

"Sure hope so Curly, but at the end of the day what other choice do I have?"

It surprised Curly how tired his brother sounded with it all and he shifted to look at Tim who continued talking.

"So much for a new start, but I got to do something because I got the feeling he will if I don't, we need to get on it first." And then just as abruptly Tim was back to his usual business like self. "Anyway guess we're in the right part of town, so let's take a look around."

Tim parked up, the street was pretty quiet, a few hippy kids heading in and out of the run down building across the street. In their jeans and leather jackets Tim and Curly stood out amongst them, but no one seemed to notice or look bothered by them being there. "Yeah, that's the place we should find someone near here, these losers love all that shit Tim."

Tim and Curly had found the kid selling around back exactly as expected. Curly had beat the crap out of him, flooring him with a few deft punches while Tim had watched appreciatively from a distance, not needing to help his brother out to complete the job. Tim drove them a short distance away before taking the gear Curly had retrieved, giving his brother back half the cash he'd lifted from the guy.

"Sure seems a waste Tim, you sure we can't keep some of this and sell it on ourselves?" Curly had asked, pocketing the cash as he watched Tim puncture the small bags with his knife before throwing them into the water. Tim was taking no chance on anyone fishing the stuff out the river in a useable state. "I mean even if you put Myers out of business then someone else will soon take his place, there's so many people love this crap. So I don't see why we can't make some easy money when we got the chance."

"Forget it Curly, this junk ain't for us. We ain't selling it and you sure as hell don't need to be taking it. Before you know it you'll have some habit controlling you. Seen some guys, at the pen, they couldn't cope without this garbage after taking it a while and it ain't nice. Sides, this is about getting at Myers, not some crusade to stop drugs sales in another part of town, I'm only interested in Myers not anyone else. Do you reckon we could find another of his flunkies tonight? I'm feeling the need for hitting someone right now."

Sure enough after asking about on the edge of their territory Curly had found another guy selling, and this time it was Tim who made short work of doing him over. Pretty soon they were heading home.

"You did good tonight Curly. Some good ideas and good skills."

"Yeah. You know, I ain't always as useless as you think Tim." He grinned to himself as he stared at the traffic out the window, hoping Tim wouldn't notice. It was a pretty good feeling to have his brother actually notice when he did something right for once, not just pick him up for all the shit that went wrong.

"Yeah, I know kid."

* * *

><p>AN: As always massive thanks to everyone who's still reading, hope you liked this chapter, hopefully it's getting a little more back on track now? Just a little trivia - the garage Danny works at was named for Dennis Hopper's photo, 'Double Standard' which I saw as part of a photo exhibition of his 60's photography work. Oh and 'Quiet Life' - Japan.


	10. End of the Line

**End of the Line**

Wednesday 7th June 1967

There was a noise in the alley as Tim walked towards the building. Stopping, he looked back over his shoulder, tensing as he spotted a figure emerging from the shadows behind him. He wasn't exactly surprised to recognise it as Pete, he and the guys had had a successful few days upsetting the River King's business interests, and it had to be pretty obvious to them that Tim was the one behind it all. Tim was a little disturbed about him being here though and he wondered if Pete had been there very long or whether he'd actually spoken to Leigh, or worse.

"What are you doing here?" Tim snapped as he looked about again, but it didn't look like there was anyone else around. Myers appeared to be alone.

"Well good evening to you too Tim. Looks like you're getting pretty predictable, too easy to find these days. Just came by to give you a friendly warning. Was going to leave it with the girl, but seems I got lucky running in to you in person. You need to keep your nose out of my business Shepard."

"Or what?"

"You'll regret it."

"Yeah right."

"Look, how about I spell it out to you. Any more mysterious beatings and muggings happen to guys over in River Kings territory then you better be watching your back. You got a hell of a lot to lose these days. I mean you got that job, and parole conditions to keep, then there's the girl. Would be so easy for something to go wrong one day, for you to get in some trouble or some accident to happen."

"I ain't scared of you Myers, now if you don't mind, I got more interesting things to do than stand here talking to you." Tim started to move towards the steps, stopping as Pete spoke again.

"Yeah, say hello to the broad for me. Shame I didn't get to talk to her, I wouldn't want her to forget me. Although I guess that ain't happening any time soon, being as every time she's looked in the mirror lately she's reminded of me," Pete replied with a bitter laugh.

"Go fuck yourself Myers," Tim snapped, "and don't let me ever find you hanging around here again or it'll be you who needs to watch your step. You so much as look at her and you'll regret it." Tim had stepped back across, closer to Pete, neither of them were ready to back down. But somehow Tim managed not to react any further. It would be incredibly satisfying to show Pete what he really thought of him, but now wasn't the time or place, Tim had bigger things to think about and there was no point blowing the whole scheme just for the short-lived satisfaction of beating Myers in one quick fist fight. The plan was obviously working if Myers felt riled enough to come find him in person, it wasn't time to stop now. Instead he would get the guys back on it later today, and the next night, hit them even harder and maintain their advantage.

So, managing instead to contain his anger, Tim walked away and when he looked back down from the top of the steps Myers was gone. He was about to knock when Leigh opened the door.

"Hi, darling," Tim forced a smile on to his face.

"Hey, you ok? I thought I heard voices out here."

"Oh, just talking to one of the guys from over the building site coming out of Charlie's place is all, hadn't seen him since I been on that other job," he lied. Sometimes it surprised him how easily he could lie, but there was no point telling her the truth, she didn't need to worry about him or what was going on. Instead, Tim shut the door behind him, gathering her into his arms and kissed her deeply. "Anyways, how are you doing?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Wasn't expecting you tonight, sure is nice to see you though."

"Yeah, kind of had you on my mind all day," he said, kissing her again, a genuine smile on his face now as he spoke, "had a couple spare hours, so I thought I'd drop round, thought we could spend some time together."

xxxxxx

"So you're coming to the wedding Saturday aren't you?" Tim asked, his arms around Leigh as they sat on her sofa.

She shook her head.

"Why? You've known Nick forever, thought you'd have been invited, the amount of time you spend with Sylvia."

She turned a little to face him, "Well, when they were first planning it I had agreed with Sylv I'd look after Matty for the day being as Mike's still away, while she's off helping Judith get ready and then doing all her bridesmaid stuff. I mean you must know what Jude's family are like, it's full on church and all, not just some quick ceremony down the town hall. So anyway I'm going to keep him here with me for the church part so Sylv don't need to worry about him being quiet. Then I was going to bring him down to meet her after and stay for a little while. Only I don't think that's such a great idea now so I'm thinking I'm just going to call in during the afternoon to drop him off and then pretty much head straight back home."

"Jesus darling why? Was kind of looking forward to you being there, spending some time with you. Sure would make it a whole lot more bearable having you there with me rather than getting stuck having to be nice to all their family or listening to boring stories from Nick's work buddies."

She sighed as she looked at him, "You really got to ask me that? Tempting as it is just for the opportunity to see you out in public looking all done up in your best shirt and tie and all, I really don't think me being there and pissing off the chief bridesmaid even more than I've already managed to is a grand idea do you?"

"Hell, she didn't ought to be mad with you, I'm the one who dumped her."

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's me she's still blaming from what Sylvia told me Maggie's been saying to Judith and anyone else who'll listen, and every time I seen her since we got together she's just glaring at me like she hates me. If I'm not there then I can't get caught up in any trouble. Nick's always been good to me so it's not going to be me who spoils their day when it ends up in a scene after everyone's had too much to drink, so I'm planning on staying out the way. It's only one day, and you can come back here with me after if you like, if you're missing me?" She smiled as she leant across to kiss him.

I'm not going to change your mind am I?"

"Nope so you're just going to have to make the best of it. Just don't let Maggie get you drunk and talk you into ditching me though," she laughed.

xxxxxx

Saturday 10th June 1967

Hey Tim, you got a minute?" Sylvia interrupted Tim as he was talking with Nick and a couple of other guys, friends of Nick's he knew in passing. Wondering what was bothering her, he stepped away from the group to talk with Sylvia.

"What's wrong?"

"When you going to go fetch Leigh and Matty?"

"I'm not. She said she was going to make her own way over and drop Matthew off, said she still don't want to stay too long 'cause of Maggie being here. She reckoned she'd be here sometime about four-ish."

"Yeah?" Sylvia said looking concerned, "that's the time I thought she said she bring him over, only it's already after five and she ain't got here yet."

"Oh, didn't realise it was getting that late, maybe the kid's still sleeping or something and she didn't want to wake him?"

"No, something's not right. She promised she'd be here by now. You know what she's like. Leigh ain't never late for anything unless without a good reason."

Sylvia's anxiety was starting to rub off on Tim. "Well what you want me to do about it?"

"Can you maybe drive over and go get them? Check that everything's ok?" Sylvia looked around the busy garden of her parent's home again, worried about her baby and her friend. "Oh hang on, there's Matty now, with Mike's mother. Guess they must have just all arrived and Leigh's around here someplace too then."

Sylvia cut through the crowd in the direction of her mother-in-law and Tim followed close on her heels, pleased that Leigh was around, hoping to find out where. "Hey there gorgeous boy," she scooped her son into her arms, smiling as she hugged him to her. "Hi Diane, how long you been here, where's Leigh?"

"Oh hi sweetheart, we've only just arrived. Your friend called round and asked if she could leave him with me a couple of hours ago, said she was feeling real unwell. Poor girl, she looked mighty pale so I guess she's coming down with something. Told her to go home and get some rest, try to sleep some."

Sylvia frowned again, confused. "How did she get all over to yours, it's further away than here? She didn't say she felt unwell this morning did she Tim? She didn't say nothing to me when I dropped him off to you guys."

"No, she was fine, looking forward to having him there for the day and she seemed ok when I left the apartment."

"Well I expect she just didn't want to worry you all where everyone's been so busy with the wedding plans. There was a couple of boys there with her, one driving them and the other helping her with all his things, real helpful that boy was. Came right up to the house with her, carrying Matty's bag, seemed real concerned about her, kept saying she needed to go. Nice looking boy, they looked good together, I guess that was her boyfriend?"

"Glory Tim, what's going on?" Sylvia turned to look at him but he was already gone, striding across the lawn and heading for his car. "Hey Diane, can you keep him for a little longer? Or ask Ma to, I think I just need to go check that she's ok?"

"Sure honey," the older woman called out, a bemused expression on her face as Sylvia gathered up the long pink skirts of her bridesmaids dress and ran as best she could after Tim, standing in front of the car to stop him as he went to pull away.

"Tim wait, I'm coming with you."

xxxxxx

Tim bounded up the steps ahead of Sylvia towards the door of Leigh's apartment. It was a pain in the ass that she didn't have a phone there, couldn't afford the bills on top of everything else, but if she had at least they would have known whether or not she was alright without having to rush all across town like this. Knocking then immediately trying the door, Tim found it unlocked so she must be home. He relaxed a little as he stepped into the living room, glancing around, only to feel surprised again to see the room was empty.

Leigh, you there? Is everything ok?" he called out as he looked around, the place looked like it had just been abandoned. The radio was still playing quietly in the background and he noticed some of the baby's toys still spread across the floor.

"She ok?" Sylvia asked, catching him up.

Tim shrugged. "I ain't seen her yet. Leigh?" he called out again, louder this time before quickly crossing the small space and looking in the bedroom. Then checked in the bathroom. Only there was no one there. There was no way she would go out and leave the door unlocked, her keys and purse were on the table like always, so where the hell was she? Tim had a bad feeling about everything. Leigh wouldn't just ditch the kid unless there was something wrong, and who in hell was with her, driving the car? He supposed it could have been Mathews. Only deep down he knew that wasn't the case. If it had been Mathews with her then Leigh would have been here, resting on the sofa or in bed, actually feeling poorly with Two-Bit fussing around her. She had seemed fine when he'd left her that morning, when he'd kissed her goodbye and promised he'd be back in the evening as he'd told her all the things he wanted to do with her and she'd smiled and made him agree not to be too late getting back to her.

"What the hell's going on Tim?" Sylvia demanded, the worry evident in her voice too.

"Don't know. Only I got a bad feeling about this. I'm gonna head home, get Curly then go look for her. I'll drop you back on the way through, you need to get back to your boy. Tell Nick I'm sorry for running out, tell him some shit about me being sick or something if he asks where I am, although hopefully he'll be too busy to even notice."

"Yeah, ok, but you come tell me as soon as you found her, or call me. You promise? I need to know that she's ok too."

xxxxxx

Heading in through his own front door about ten minutes later, Tim nearly bumped right into Curly who was half walking, half hopping, towards the door while in the process of pulling on his shoes and jacket.

"Dammit Curly, watch where you're going will you? What are you doing anyways? I've come to get you, need you to do something for me."

"Thank Christ you're here Tim, because I was just heading out to find you. Got a message for you."

"Leigh called?" he asked, hoping there was some obvious explanation he hadn't thought of to explain her absence.

"What? No, why in hell would she call you here, she knows you're at that wedding don't she?" Curly frowned at him, puzzled at what seemed like a stupid question from his brother. "It was Jimmy Fry. Think he thought he was talking to you. Said Myers has got something valuable of mine. Well not mine, yours I guess if he thought I was you. That if you want it back undamaged then you need to go speak to him. That all this trouble ends today. Guess your plan has been working pretty good so it's all kicking off now." Curly grinned, expecting his brother to look pleased that he had provoked a reaction out of the River Kings so quickly.

Turning Tim punched the wall, cursing near enough every bad thing he could think of.

"What's going on Tim?" He looked questioningly at his brother, it had been a long time since he'd seen Tim that angry, or that desperate looking.

"Just tell me where I've got to go Curly. Tell me exactly what he said to you on the phone, word for word. Don't leave anything out."

* * *

><p>AN: Well, as always, thanks for reading and for the new follows/favourites. I hope you liked this chapter too. (End of the Line - Boy and Bear).


	11. Ladies and Gentlemen, Roll the Dice

**Ladies and Gentlemen, Roll the Dice.**

Leigh sat in the car, wondering how she had ended up in this position as she thought back over her day. It had all started so well, she'd been looking forward to seeing Tim again later and enjoying taking care of Sylvia's baby when things had all taken a turn for the worse.

It had been about the time her friends would be saying their marriage vows in the church. Leigh had been thinking about them, picturing Sylvia all done up in that over the top bustling pink dress she'd been made to wear, and then there was Tim. He had looked so smart when he had left her earlier, so different. It had seemed weird seeing him in a shirt and tie. Leigh had carried on daydreaming idly about the pair of them and how things might work out between them this time; wondering if she would ever have a happy ending, like her friends seemed to get, be the one getting married one day and being part of a family again. Then she shook herself. She was well aware that Tim Shepard wasn't the marrying type but maybe they could be happy together, if not forever then at least for a while. Only it seemed now like she had just been kidding herself. Things never seemed to go well for very long when they were together.

Because not long after her peace was shattered. Pete and Jimmy had come strolling into her apartment like they owned the place, and now here she was in the back of Pete's car, Jimmy Fry sat next to her, on her way to God only knew where.

xxxxxx

A short time after they'd dropped Matty off, Leigh found herself being pulled by the arm in through the back door of the building she recognised as Murphy's bar, into the small room that Pete would use whenever he needed to talk privately to people. Glancing up at the clock Leigh saw it was barely three o'clock, no one was going to miss her for a while. Pete snapped at her to sit down and she did as she was told, keeping quiet and watching as the two of them talked quietly just out of ear shot, as she tried to figure out what was going on.

Occasionally one or the other would leave the room for a short while so Leigh waited for Jimmy to leave before turning to Pete. "Why am I here Pete, what's all this about? Surely you're not going to this much trouble just because of what happened between the two of us."

"Hell no, don't flatter yourself sweetheart," Pete remarked, smirking at her. "Shepard's been screwing in my business ever since he got out of jail and it's really starting to piss me off. So I aim to put a stop to it, here and now. I expect that's the only reason he's with you too, 'cause he thought it'd wind me up."

Leigh was sceptical, it was the first she'd heard about this trouble between them. Surely that couldn't be the only reason why Tim had pursued her. He was sometimes more distant when they were out and there was a crowd around, but she was sure the way he acted when he was around her when it was just the two of them there was genuine, surely that couldn't be fake. There had to be more to it than Pete was telling her.

"That can't be true. Why would he do that? I mean I know you ain't never been friends but still, sounds like an awful lot of trouble to go to just to get at you."

"He never told you, did he?"

"Told me what?"

Pete laughed at her puzzled expression. "That it was me and Wayne that set him up. We're the reason he got sent down to McAlester."

"Well then I guess you deserve it all then, you bastard." She spat the words angrily at him, then was left reeling as he slapped her hard around the face.

"You might want to keep your mouth shut some girl, wouldn't want to mess up that pretty little face again."

"Go to hell Pete," Leigh replied angrily, gently rubbing the side of her face where he'd hit her, trying to soothe the stinging pain. At least now she knew why everything was happening, why Tim hated Pete so much.

The pair of them were silent again, Pete glaring at her occasionally as she sat quietly in the corner, until around four thirty when Jimmy returned.

"You want me to go make that call?"

"Yeah, only go use the phone on the street, you don't need anyone overhearing you."

After Jimmy left, Pete turned his attention back to Leigh.

"You know your boyfriend's cost me a lot of time and money lately, upset some of my best contacts and they're looking for the reason why I've let them down. They want some payback from me when I meet with them tonight."

"So what's that got to do with me? Why am I here?"

"Needed something that would guarantee that he'd turn up here."

"What, so he shows up and then you're just gonna give them Tim?" she asked, surprised that he was sharing this much with her.

"Yeah, why not, they can do what they like with him. Beat it out of him, or worse. I don't really care."

"Jesus." Leigh thought she knew the guys Pete meant, it had to be the out-of-towners, she was pretty sure the wasn't anyone from Tulsa that he would be that worried about. They were some tough looking guys, led by some guy called Andy McKenna who everyone seems to call Mack. He looked to be a few years older and she had met him with Pete in the bar a couple of times and made small talk with before they'd disappeared for a while to talk business in private. She didn't know exactly what kind of deals he did with them but had known he did some not strictly legal things. But then most guys she knew did, Tim included. It was nothing out of the ordinary in their neighbourhood, and she never wanted to know all the details, had always figured she was better off not knowing.

"Let me help," she offered, her voice steadier than she expected.

"What?" He looked at her, shocked.

"I said let me help, try to settle things. There's got to be something I can do so you could leave Tim out of it? Maybe act as a go between for you or do some deal for you. I don't know, just don't hurt him Pete, please?"

Pete studied her for a moment, thinking about what she'd said, amused by how desperate she seemed to protect Shepard. "Well I guess I could use you a little too. You remember Mack and his crowd don't you?"

Leigh nodded, it was the same guys she had been thinking of when she'd made her suggestion.

"Well, Mack generally hooks up with Lana but I reckon Dave kind of liked the look of you last time you met. Kind of pissed me off at the time. Maybe I could give you to him tonight by way of an apology, help distract him from our issues," he suggested, his smile bitter.

Leigh was momentarily shocked when she realised what he was getting at. But then an idea began to form in her mind, using the sketchy details Pete had shared with her. If she had to be close to the guy then she should get some chance to speak to him alone, away from Pete or anyone else listening in.

"Yeah, ok."

Pete looked at her for a moment, bemused. "You do know what you're agreeing to? What he's gonna want from you?"

Leigh nodded. Hoping it wouldn't get that far.

"And you know Shepard ain't gonna thank you for getting messed up in this?"

Leigh shrugged, trying not to look bothered. "Well Tim ain't no good to me dead in a ditch neither so I guess it don't matter, we're screwed either way." She had the plan, a tiny, seed of a stupid idea growing in the back of her mind that might just work if, just maybe, Pete would see her as a good deal. "Yeah, I'll do it," she smiled, touching his arm, "I mean if you was Dave would you rather have me or some cheap dime store hood? You can find a guy to fight with on any street corner."

"Can find a cheap broad on every corner too," Pete remarked coldly, his arms folded as he considered her. She was a fool, thinking she could save Shepard, but then just maybe seeing her in that position might break Shepard in ways a beating never could. "Let me think about it some more, so sit yourself down and shut up."

Jimmy returned, beckoning Pete over, and Leigh watched them talking in the doorway in hushed tones but couldn't quite make out their words. Then Pete disappeared, returning a couple of minutes later with Lana, who worked in the bar, and she smiled sympathetically at Leigh as she dropped her make-up bag down on the table in front of Leigh.

"There you go sweetie."

"Thanks Lana," she replied as Pete turned to her,

"Ok, you best get moving, you got about twenty minutes to make yourself look presentable."

Leigh set to work, began transforming herself – heavier eyeliner, darker lipstick, the kind of look Sylvia used to favour in high school. Then she smoothed her hands through her hair before glancing down at her clothes. Hardly glamorous but ok. She turned over the waistband of her skirt to make it a little shorter, then pulled the hem of her slim-fitted sweater so the scoop neck sat a little lower, emphasising her figure a little better.

xxxxxx

Back across town, Curly chased down their front yard after Tim, climbing in the passenger seat of the car. "Come on, you can't go there alone, what is he wanting you for anyway Tim? We ain't got nothing of any value so what's he going on about?"

"Jesus Curly, work it out will you? He's pissed 'cause of all them things we been doing that we started when we were messing with his car and then all this recent shit screwing around with the King's business. And then on top of that he's even more annoyed because Leigh dumped him for me. It's obvious ain't it – it Leigh he's got."

"Fucking hell Tim, are you sure?"

"Well, pretty sure, she's not at home and didn't make it to the wedding, too much of a coincidence otherwise ain't it?"

"So what are you going to do?"

"Absolutely no idea."

"So you're just gonna go there, do whatever he asks?"

"I suppose, unless you got a better idea?"

"I know he said for you to go alone but why don't I come along? I can scout round the place a bit and see if anything else is going on while you meet him. Just be careful though, don't do nothing too hasty, you don't want to get yourself jailed again Tim."

"Yeah, ok, although I reckon getting jailed is the least of my worries. Meet me back here in a half hour, no longer than that." He pulled the car to a stop a couple of blocks away from Murphy's, wanting to approach quietly, have some small advantage as he walked into this unknown situation.

xxxxxx

Jimmy was hovering around in the doorway keeping a half eye on her when Pete returned.

"Ok, they're here so you're up." Pete looked her over as Leigh stood up, "You sure look a whole lot better than earlier," he said, grinning, running a hand down the side of her face, amused to see her flinch a little at his touch. "Almost makes me wish you hadn't fucked things up between us. Now come on."

Pete's associates stood at the bar drinking. One of them was busy chatting with Lana while Dave smiled appreciatively as he saw Leigh approaching with Pete. "Well hello there darling, I hear you're gonna keep me company. Why don't you come sit here next to me and I'll get you a drink?"

"Hi Dave, sure is nice to see you." She forced a fake smile on her face, hoped she didn't sound as scared as she felt. Maybe this had all just been a dumb idea but it was too late to back out now.

The time passed slowly, the guy seemed content to have her there next to him like some kind of trophy for the time being, an arm around her waist or shoulders keeping her there, his hand on her leg venturing beneath the hem of her skirt now and then, the occasional kiss. Not pleasant but just about bearable. Now she just needed the right moment, needed Pete to relax a little more so she could finish her plan.

xxxxxx

Tim took a deep breath then pushed open the door of the bar, knowing he was most likely walking into a trap. As he stepped inside he saw Pete and Jimmy Fry straight off. It was fairly quiet in there tonight. There were a few guys he knew from previous run-ins with the Kings, then a small group at the bar he didn't recognise. One of them turned to glance over as the door banged shut and Tim saw the girl he was with. His stomach lurched as he realised it was Leigh, she was there and safe. But his relief was short-lived as he took in the scene. Why was she sitting at the bar smiling at some other guy? He caught her eye as she looked over but her expression was unreadable. He looked again, she might be smiling but her posture was tense and she was pulling at the cuff of her sleeve, a sure sign something was bothering her. He was sure she wasn't as keen to be there as it first appeared.

Stepping further inside he forced himself to stop looking at her so he could speak with Myers who had approached him.

"Got a message you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, you need to keep out of my business Shepard or things aren't gonna end well for you."

"And you expect me to be scared?" Tim couldn't help glancing over Pete's shoulder, watching Leigh as the older guy passed her a drink then ran his hand up her leg. It made him feel a little sick and incredibly angry.

Knowing what was distracting Tim, Pete laughed a little. "Guess she realised she made a mistake hanging out with you."

"I don't believe you."

"It's her choice, being here like that."

"Like I said, I don't believe you. I want to hear it from her."

"Well sure." Pete turned and called out to her. "Leigh, honey, you got a minute?"

"Sure." She stepped away from the bar, standing beside Pete, right in front of Tim.

"Tim thinks you don't want to be here. Maybe you can set him straight so he can get on his way."

Tim stared at her as she glanced down at the floor, biting her lip. Then she looked up, her face set into that emotionless expression again. "Yeah, well, it was fun and all but you know, I kind of got a better offer."

"What the hell? You don't mean that?"

"Yeah. Sorry Tim, but we're done. It was a mistake, getting back together." She moved ever so slightly so that her hand brushed his for a second, causing him to hold her gaze for a split second longer, "I'm sorry," she whispered, before continuing to speak a little louder. "Please, just go, don't get in no trouble."

"Leigh? What the hell?" Tim wanted to pull her close, take her hand and walk out the door together, but as he went to reach out for her Myers stopped him.

"She stays here. Ain't that right sweetheart?"

Leigh nodded and before Tim could say anything more she had walked back to the bar. Once again she was standing too close to that guy, smiling a bright smile at him as Tim watched the guy throw an arm around her then lean in to kiss her.

"Guess you better leave, like the lady said," Pete continued, laughing at Tim.

"This ain't over Myers," Tim remarked before he turned and walked out the door, feeling defeated. He wanted to beat Pete Myers senseless, that other creep too, but knew it was pointless trying to take on all of them alone. There was no way he could get Leigh and himself out of there unharmed. He needed to find Curly, it felt like everyone had gone mad. He didn't believe that things could have gone from being so perfect that morning to like this in one day. He just knew he had to get her out of there somehow.

xxxxxx

Leigh tried not to cry as she saw Tim leave. She wondered if he had really believed what she had said or if he realised she was only doing it for him, trying to keep him safe. Suddenly it all seemed such a ridiculous idea, everything was such a mess. She watched as Pete turned to Jimmy.

"Send three of the guys, go get Shepard and make sure he knows he ain't never gonna be top dog in this town."

"But…" Leigh couldn't stop herself from protesting.

"Oh come off it, you didn't really expect me to just let him walk out of here did you? Not after all the trouble he's caused me."

"No, I guess not," she sighed. Maybe now was the time to try her plan, she had nothing to lose and it was her only chance of getting out of there any time soon. Turning back to Dave she leant in close to him, smiled then spoke softly so that only he could hear her. "Hey Dave, you want to go somewhere a little quieter?"

"Sure darling, so why don't we go over here." He led Leigh by the hand to a booth in the corner of the bar and from the corner of her eye she could see Pete laughing. She hoped he thought Dave was making a move on her, but at least they were far enough away that they wouldn't be overheard.

"So what can I do for you sweetheart?" he asked, pulling her close to him, leaning in to kiss her as she spoke.

"Got some information that might be of value to you," Leigh offered.

Dave stopped, looking at her curiously. "Yeah, so why don't you go ahead and share it with me?"

"Well," she paused.

"Oh, I get it, you want something in return?" he asked with a grin.

Leigh nodded.

"Ok, so what do you want?"

"Just for you to let me walk out of here, no arguments, after I told you what I got to say."

"Well, can't say I'm not disappointed you want to go, but ok. That is, if the information's good enough."

"I can tell you who's been screwing with your business, why you ain't been getting enough cash every week, it ain't exactly happened like Pete's been telling you."

"Well, that would be mighty useful to us I guess. Ok, you got a deal sweetheart. Give me the information and if it holds up I won't stand in your way, you'll be free to leave."

"Ok."

"So, what's the deal then?" Dave pressed, wanting her to tell him what she knew and Leigh realised it was now or never, she had to try to sell him the lie.

"Pete."

"Pete?"

"Yeah, he's been skimming money off the top, telling you deals haven't worked out or that other gangs been interfering, only really he's just been keeping the cash for himself."

"You sure about this?"

"Course I am. When I found out, that's when he done this to me," she brushed her hair back from her face so he could see the edges of the faded bruises beneath her make up and pushed up her sleeves slightly to show the marks up her arms left over from her fight with Pete, "Told me he'd kill me if I ever told anyone, so that's why I need to get out."

Dave studied her, trying to look for signs as to whether she was lying. "You telling me the truth girl?"

"Yeah, I got nothing to gain by lying to you. That'd just put me in an even worse place. It's all Pete's fault."

Dave thought for a few minutes then gestured to one of his companions, who joined them. The two men talked quickly, quietly together. Then Dave turned back to Leigh.

"You wait here," he said, before leaving her alone as the two of them spoke with their two other companions. And then suddenly they all rounded on Pete, knives out and guns drawn. One guy pinning Pete against the wall as the fighting began.

As the commotion continued, Leigh slipped quietly out the back way. She was a couple of streets away before she ran slap bang into Curly Shepard, jumping like she'd seen a ghost.

"Hey Leigh, you ok? What you doing here? You seen Tim?"

She was shivering, it was a cool evening and she didn't know what she was doing anymore, the adrenaline was all gone and her nerve shot. "Yeah, you got to find him Curly. Pete sent some guys to jump him."

"Well come on then, we'll go look together, the car's nearby. He'd have headed back there I expect."

"No, I can't. He probably hates me now anyway." She stood still, a panicky look on her face.

"What? What you talking about? He came looking for you, that's why he's here."

"Yeah, but everything went wrong. I done something real stupid." Tears started to fall from her eyes.

Curly sighed, girls sure were hard work sometimes. "Well I can't leave you here so come help me find Tim and tell me what happened on the way."

Circling back around to the other side of Murphy's Leigh stuttered her way through the convoluted chain of events. Curly was stunned, she didn't seem like she'd have the nerve for all that, but then it hit him how desperate she must have been feeling.

"Look Leigh, for what it's worth, once he knows the truth Tim'll be alright about it. I mean it ain't how it looked. He's probably pissed right now but he was real concerned when he couldn't find you, and he ain't stupid, he probably figured out you was just trying to get yourself out of trouble. Once he knows it ain't how it looked, well…" Curly paused as a figure lurched out of the shadows towards them.

"Well look who we got here, a second-rate Shepard and a lousy double-crossing bitch," Jimmy remarked blocking the path in front of them as he reached slowly for his back pocket, for his switch blade.

Noticing the movement Curly readied himself for the fight, wondering how quick he could grab his own blade, while he continued trying to talk his way out of it. "How about you just get out the way Fry, looks like you had enough bother for one night."

"No. She ain't getting away with what she done."

Jimmy pulled the knife from his pocket, lunging towards Curly. As he moved, Leigh stepped back, fell back against the trash cans, knocking them over. As she screamed for Curly to look out Leigh noticed the bottle amongst the rubbish spilling out across the sidewalk, picking it up without really thinking. Curly side-stepped Jimmy at the same time as her shout caused Jimmy to spin around, the knife slicing into her side as she brought the bottle crashing down over his head, the glass shattering as the pair of them stumbled to the floor.

* * *

><p>AN: Well thanks as always for reading, I hope you liked this chapter, it would be great to know what you think so far :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Roll the Dice is from Kasabian.


	12. Love Goes Down

**Love Goes Down  
><strong>

"Leigh, come on, get up." Curly stepped through the broken glass and over the slumped figure of Jimmy then crouched down next to her, his hand on her shoulder as he tried to hold her attention.

"I don't want to, I just want to sleep." Leigh tried to push away the hands that were shaking her, only the pain was too much. So she pressed her hand to her side, only that made it hurt even more. She wondered why he was shouting at her, she hadn't done anything wrong.

"Leigh please, try to stand up. We gotta get out of here before Jimmy wakes up ok?"

"No Tim I can't. Why are you yelling at me? I'm too tired. Can't you just let me get some sleep?"

"Come on, look at me, listen to me," he continued, his hand on her chin as he turned her head gently so she was facing him. "It's not Tim, it's me, Curly. We're going to go meet Tim though. He's got the car, but you really need to help me out some and get up. We've got to get out of here."

One time a couple of years back Curly had got knifed, so he knew exactly how much it hurt, but couldn't remember being this out of it when it had happened to him. Jimmy had gone for her with his blade but the cut hadn't looked that big. Maybe she'd hit her head on the way down too. Or maybe it was shock. People acted real weird sometimes when shit like this went on. He hoped that was the reason, rather that than the knife wound being worse than he thought anyways. He wasn't exactly looking forward to telling Tim he'd been there when it had happened, knew Tim would want to know why he hadn't been the one hurt, not Leigh. It had all just happened so fast, Jimmy lunging at her before Curly could push her out the way.

"I don't want to."

Leigh was drifting in and out of consciousness now. Curly sighed, grabbed her under the arms and hauled her up off the sidewalk, talking loudly at her as he tried to keep her awake. It was easy enough to hold her up, she was a whole lot shorter than he was, and she seemed tiny compared to him as he held her up. He only hoped he could get her the block and a half back to Tim's car before anyone saw them and that she didn't bleed too much on the way. His brother would be there by now at least. Tim would know what to do, he always knew what to do.

xxxxxx

Tim slouched down in the driver's seat and lit another cigarette. As he tried to compose himself and come up with a plan for what to do, he wondered if Curly had found out anything useful or if he'd got in some trouble as well. He thought maybe he should go look for him. It was coming up for half past seven, and in a few more minutes, if there was still no sign of Curly, he would go looking. Tim's head was pounding, the three guys had rushed him, getting the better of him initially, but he had fought them off eventually, had managed to knock one of them out, then he thought he'd probably broken the second lad's arm as they had scuffled, had heard the bone crack as they'd fought anyway - at which point the third one had given up too and they had made a run for it.

He rubbed his head, in between taking drags on his cigarette, as he tried to focus. Concerned about his brother and preoccupied with thinking about what might be happening to Leigh, Tim knew he couldn't just sit there all night and do nothing, he needed a plan and soon. Then he heard footsteps and voices. Looking up he saw them heading down the street together, making way too much noise. He thought Curly would have had more sense than that. The streets were fairly quiet but there were a few people around, looking like they were either heading home from work or starting a night out, and passers-by were staring at the pair of them, they were hardly being inconspicuous with Curly practically shouting at her. Then Tim noticed the way that his brother had his arm around Leigh, while her arm hung loosely across Curly's shoulders as though he was almost pulling her along, near enough carrying her.

"What the hell?" Tim asked as he scrambled out the car, staring at the pair of them. They both had blood on their clothes but while Curly seemed fine, Leigh was a mess. She looked completely out of it, like she would just fall in the gutter if Curly was to let go of her.

"Open the car door Tim, reckon we need to get her to the hospital."

"What happened?" He stood, frozen to the spot, trying to process the scene in front of him. It didn't make any sense, how had she ended up like this so soon? It wasn't meant to happen like that. The plan was that he would save her, take care of her, not watch her bleeding out all over his kid brother.

"Just open the car door Tim, we got to get going, I'll tell you what I know on the way."

Curly was getting frustrated now, his brother was never this indecisive. Usually the one predictable, reliable thing about Tim was that he would be calm, take control of any given situation. Quite often it annoyed the hell out of Curly that his brother just automatically assumed he always knew best, but right now he'd be happy for that version of Tim to show up and take charge, instead of standing there, uncomprehending.

"Come on Tim," he practically yelled, causing Tim to finally wake up and spring into action, back to himself again.

xxxxxx

Curly and Tim sat in the emergency room waiting area, neither speaking very much. Curly sat with his head resting against the wall and his eyes shut, while in contrast Tim was bolt upright, watching everyone coming and going, impatient to find out what was happening.

"So what did Myers have to say when you seen him?" Curly finally asked, wanting to break the silence. Sitting there so quiet was starting to annoy him and he wanted to distract himself from the bitterness he was feeling that his own life was always second best. He got that all this was significant to Tim, that Tim expected him to be part of it because he trusted him. But it was always the same, maybe even worse since Tim had got out of jail this time. Whatever Tim had going on was the only important thing, he never once asked Curly to do something or be somewhere, it was always taken for granted he'd do it. Curly sighed to himself while he waited for Tim to answer. Maybe it was just as well he hadn't asked out that cute chick he'd been chatting to in the store that morning - that was even if she had said yes, rather than laugh in his face - because yet again he was stuck here at his brothers beck and call instead of out doing whatever he wanted. It was ironic really, he'd spent so long growing up wishing to be the one Tim relied on, only now he was in that position Curly realised it wasn't at all like he had hoped it would be.

"Not much. Couple of threats about keeping out their way. Think he just wanted to prove a point, make sure I knew what he was going to let happen to her just because of what I done. Never expected he would involve her, I honestly never knew he was that low. I mean I figured he might do something, maybe try to scare her or whatever but I never expected he'd use her like that. Guess I was being foolish, Myers really doesn't have no standards about what he's prepared to do."

"Is that all?"

"I spoke to her but she told me to leave. I don't know, I guess she was just saying what Myers wanted to hear. Least I hope so." Tim shrugged, running his hand through his hair. "In the end I knew I couldn't take them all on by myself, that would have been pointless, stupid. So I was going back to look for you, so we could go back for her later only I never got that far 'cause he sent some guys after me to do me over." He glanced down at his split knuckles and ran his hand along his jaw where it ached. "Guess I just about came off best in that. Don't suppose this'll be the end of it though."

"Yeah, it didn't exactly go how I expected when I ran into her either. She was a mess, crying and talking nonsense. She thinks you hate her for all that she said to you and done in there. Can't believe what she done to Myers though, never expected she had the nerve for it. Then Fry came out of nowhere. I'm sorry Tim, I would have tried to stop him but I thought he was gonna go for me not her."

Curly saw Tim shudder a little at his words, "Yeah well, at least you were there. At least you brought her back to me – she might still be lying in that street if you hadn't been around."

"Wonder if Fry's alright, she smashed that bottle over his head and he was still out cold when we left."

"I expect someone will have found him by now, probably looked worse than it was anyway." Tim shrugged, Curly knew his brother had seen people hit with bottles plenty in bar fights, had even survived being glassed in the face himself with just the scars now to show for it and it seemed Tim couldn't care less about what had happened to Fry so long as Leigh was alright.

They sunk back into silence until short time later the door banged open and Sylvia came running in, glaring at Tim. "What the hell happened to her? You can't just ring and say she's here and then hang up you jerk. Is she alright?"

"Don't know yet, they haven't let us see her since she came in," Curly replied, being as it seemed like Tim had no intention of answering her. But Sylvia had no wish to leave him be. She sat down, turning on Tim as she spoke angrily.

"Dammit Tim, why couldn't you just leave her alone? You know this is all on you - She deserves so much better than all this, I hope you're proud of yourself."

"Jesus Sylv, you think I don't know that? Just let it go will you? I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"Well that ain't good enough. You should have looked out for her better. You seen what he done to her the other day, she needed you and you let her down."

"Listen I don't need you coming in here telling me what I done wrong because I already know that. You got no idea what happened so why don't you get out of my face and shut the hell up?"

Curly glanced up, the pair of them were on their feet now, still bitching back and forth at each other, Sylvia waving her hands around, jabbing at Tim as she continued berating him, Tim tense and angry-looking, his stance intimidating to everyone apart from Sylvia apparently.

"You always were a no good hood Tim Shepard, and it seems you ain't never going to change. When are you ever going to grow up and stop acting like some damn teenage punk? You just couldn't leave well alone could you – had to get involved and fuck everything up for her again?"

"What you talking about Sylvia? It ain't me who's done anything bad to her."

"No, but you're the reason it all kicked off. Trouble just follows you around Tim, you can't seem to help it. You're just like Dally was, you bring shit down on everyone close to you."

"I have never once made her do something she didn't want to, you know that. She chose to get with me again."

"Yeah? Well, she's never been very good at making a sensible decision where you're concerned."

"Jesus, why don't you just shut the fuck up and mind your own damn business for once?"

Pretty soon when it became obvious they weren't stopping anytime soon the nurse who was frowning at them from behind the desk while she watched the commotion started to move towards them.

"Glory you two, just shut up, both of you, or she's gonna throw us all out," Curly hissed, nodding towards the approaching figure.

"Yeah, yeah." Sylvia folded her arms, muttering now and then under her breath to curse at Tim as they sat back down, Tim just staring blankly across the corridor at the wall until finally another nurse came over to them from Leigh's room. They had managed to convince the staff when they'd brought Leigh in that she had no one else, no family in town to contact and that they were about as good as she got.

"You can go in now, she's awake." The nurse had smiled and Tim and Sylvia had both stood, both looking to head into the room.

"No way Tim, I'm going in first. She's been my friend forever. I need to see her first 'fore I got to get back to Matty and help Ma clean up from the wedding."

Tim looked like he might start bickering with her again but Curly interrupted, he was getting a little bored and very pissed off with having to act as peacemaker, reminded him of being at home stuck in the middle of everyone's arguments, Tim and Angela, Angela and Ma, Ma and Tim, they all used him as the middle man and it was both tedious and exhausting.

"It's alright, you go ahead, we'll wait out here for a bit, find out what's been happening, then come say hello in a while won't we Tim?" his hand on his brother's arm.

"Yeah, ok, I'll give you a few minutes, then I'm coming in," Tim snapped begrudgingly, turning back to the nurse, wanting to regain some control as he asked question after question about what had happened and how Leigh was.

xxxxxx

As Sylvia left, Tim entered the quiet room and he saw Leigh propped up on the pillows, her face pale and her eyes closed.

"Hey darling." He sank down onto the chair next to her, reaching out and taking her hand.

"Hey." She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice and turned her head a little, smiling at him. "You ok? Was worried about you, especially when he sent them guys after you."

"Hell, I'm fine, what about you though? How you feeling sweetheart?"

"Tired, sore. Better than I was though so I guess all the drugs they gave me are working some."

"How bad did he hurt you?"

"Few stitches, and they said I hit my head. Think that's maybe why they want me to stay overnight."

"And before... that guy." Tim shifted awkwardly in the chair. He needed to know but at the same time didn't want to ask, in case her answer wasn't what he hoped it would be and he found himself skirting around the issue and unable to just ask her outright. "That guy in the bar - did he _hurt_ you at all?"

"What? Oh no, really, nothing happened, managed to get out of there before it went that far. Honest Tim, you do believe me don't you? I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do. I only let him kiss me a little. He didn't do nothing like that to me."

"Jesus Leigh, you don't need to apologise to me. I'm sorry you got involved, that Myers used you, pretty sure you didn't exactly do it 'cause you wanted to."

She shrugged a little. "Like I said the other day, ain't your fault he's some kind of whack job is it? But you could have told me." She looked down at the sheet beneath her hands, focusing on the lines in the threads, and Tim wished she would look at him.

"Told you what?"

"That the pair of you had that going on, that he was the one that set you up in '65. That you wanted to get back at him."

"I guess I didn't want you dragged into it."

"Didn't want me involved? Jesus Tim. Didn't exactly work out did it? Maybe if I'd known any of what was going on I'd have been more careful. Is it true, the stuff Pete said to me? Did you only do it to get at him?"

"Do what?"

"Did you only come see me and say you wanted me just to get back at him for getting you jailed? Have you just been using me all this time or did you - do you - actually want me? 'Cause right now I don't know what to think about anything anymore." She had finally turned now to look at him, her expression troubled and Tim felt so uncomfortable as she watched him, waiting for him to answer, realising how important this question was to her.

He sighed, wondering how she could doubt his feelings for her. "Jesus darling. I'll admit when I saw you were with him in the diner that time it did cross my mind to use you just to get to him."

"Fuck's sake Tim. I thought…"

"Hell, let me finish. But then when I came round to your place that evening and spent some time with you again, well then I knew it was more than that, that I still wanted you."

"You really mean that?"

Tim stood, moving from the chair before settling uncertainly on the edge of the bed, wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumb.

"Yeah, I really mean that. Why else do you think I kept coming back? Come on Leigh, you've got to believe me. If all I wanted was to piss off Myers then I would never have stayed with you after I'd broken you two up. Don't let him win, don't let him fuck things up between us. Not again." She looked away, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, and Tim felt worried, feeling more like he was on the verge of losing her now than he had at any other time. "Dammit, I know I'm not good at all this and that I don't tell you often enough but I do love you, you need to believe that. And I know Sylvia and all your friends'll tell you that you're an idiot if you stick with a loser like me, but I never had another girl that makes me feel like you do. I'll go though, if it's what you really want?"

Tim's words surprised her, he was never that open with her, and despite the circumstances it was a relief to hear him say all those things, confirm that the feelings she had for him were mutual, especially after the hard time Sylvia had given her about him. "Well it's good to hear you say it, least I know it ain't all in my head." She smiled at him as shifted closer to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders and holding her close. "Will you stay here with me? I just feel so tired and my head's all over the place but I don't want to be on my own?"

"So long as you want me around then I ain't gonna leave. I won't let nothing bad happen to you again, ever. Why don't you try to rest some?" He kissed her softly on the forehead, before moving back to the chair.

xxxxxx

Pretty soon Leigh had drifted back to sleep as the drugs kicked in and Tim peered out the door into the waiting room where an anxious looking Curly pulled him to one side.

"They just brought Fry in, on his own and pretty out of it. I don't think he saw me but still, what if Myers or some other of the Kings turn up here? You can't stay here Tim."

"Just go home Curly. And make sure Angela keeps out of trouble."

"Hell, I get that you want to look after her and all, but you can't afford any more trouble."

"I don't care, I'm not going anywhere without her."

* * *

><p>AN: Thank you again for reading & for the favourites/follows, they're much appreciated :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter - it would be great to know what you think of it, if you have a spare moment x  
>(Love Goes Down - Plan B)<p> 


	13. An Elegant Chaos

**An Elegant Chaos**

Sunday 11th June 1967

Leigh woke with a start. Glancing at the clock she realised it was still early, before relaxing a little when she saw Tim was still there, hunched uncomfortably in the chair with his feet resting on the edge of the bed as he slept, glad he had kept his promise to stay with her. It had been such a weight off her mind to hear him actually say that he loved her yesterday, to know she could count on him being there for her. She wondered what had happened after she'd left Murphy's, whether Pete had talked himself back out of the trouble she'd put him in. Then she noticed Tim stirring, starting to wake, and she pushed the worries from her mind.

"Morning," Leigh smiled as she watched him yawn then shake himself fully awake.

"Hey babe. You sleep ok?"

"Hmm, not so bad. You sure look mighty uncomfortable over there though."

Tim shrugged, "Slept in worse places. You reckon they'll let you come home today? How do you feel?"

"Sure hope so, hurts some if I move too quick but it's not that bad. Reckon I'll just discharge myself anyways. I just want to go home, spent too long in the hospital when daddy was sick so I really don't want to stay in here any more than I have to."

"I'd prefer it if you come stay with me, at least for a couple days," Tim said as he moved to sit on the bed, facing her.

"Why? Wouldn't it be easier if you just stayed with me? Then at least Curly don't have to sleep on the couch?"

"Be safer at the house, there's more people around. At least 'til we know what happened with Pete, and Jimmy."

Leigh glanced up at Tim, running her fingers gently along the scars on his face. "Was it awful, when it happened? Guess it must've hurt, a real lot?" she asked. "You know I never meant to do something like that, just I didn't know what else to do and I panicked a bit when I thought he was gonna hurt us."

Tim looked away, it wasn't something he liked to remember, and in the past he'd always glossed over it, dismissing it as nothing on the rare occasions that anyone brought it up. But now he found himself thinking about that fight gone wrong back when he'd been fifteen and still thought he was invincible, and how it had ended up with him being glassed with a broken bottle and the blood, the pain, the stitches that had all followed. The doctor had told him he was lucky it had missed his eye. But he hadn't felt lucky, not with the way people had looked at him afterwards like he was some kind of freak, the girls in school whispering and laughing in the corridors, or even worse looking terrified. Not that it should have surprised him when even his own mother hadn't been able to look at him properly for months after. It was years now since it had happened and although outwardly the scars had faded, sometimes he'd look in the mirror and be taken by surprise, hating his reflection.

"Yeah it hurt like you wouldn't believe, was pretty much the worst thing I've ever had happen to me."

"Jesus," she whispered, before Tim continued, regretting being so honest as he realised how she was feeling.

"Listen to me, you don't need to worry about Jimmy Fry alright? You didn't do _this_ to him, you didn't slice him up with a busted bottle, Curly said you hit him with it and then it smashed, so it probably wouldn't have cut him up so bad as this. Anyway, he would have done a whole lot worse to you two, so as far as I can see he got what he deserved."

"I guess."

"Dammit, you don't need to blame yourself, or feel sorry for him, alright?" Tim stared at her, waiting for a response, "Leigh?"

"Yeah, I know, but it don't make me feel any better about any of it though."

xxxxxx

A couple of hours later Leigh was given the all clear to go home but when Tim tried to call Curly to bring the car over there was no reply. Nothing unusual, Curly was likely still sleeping and it was always hit or miss if anyone else would actually bother to answer the phone at the Shepard house. But it still annoyed him and this was obvious in his expression as he returned to the room, sitting next to Leigh on the edge of the bed.

"Look, it don't matter, we waited this long. Why don't you try again in a few minutes. Or if you get no luck there then ring Sylv or we can try someone else?" Leigh suggested, seeing how restless Tim looked stuck in the small room. "How about you go for a smoke, get some air?"

"Sure you don't mind?"

"Course not, I'll be fine." She had smiled, kissed him long and slow. "You reckon you can ask him to bring me some clothes though, just to wear 'til I pick up some of my own stuff? Only I just realised my top's not exactly very wearable any more."

"Yeah, reckon I could do with a shower and a fresh shirt myself," Tim said with a wry smile, glancing down at the clothes he'd put on for Nick's wedding the previous day - it felt weird, like it had all happened so much longer ago, so much had gone on in between. "I'll tell him to bring you something of Ange's," he offered, returning her kiss then sliding his hand across the front of her hospital gown as his lips worked slowly down her neck. "'Be good to get you out of here, seem to remember I'm still on a promise from yesterday."

"Yeah, shame I'm a little out of action, what with the stitches and all," Leigh murmured, resting her head against his chest.

"Hmm, well I'm pretty sure we can find a way round it to suit us both."

"Yeah?" She laughed.

"Yeah, just need to get out of this damn place." Kissing her one last time, Tim stood up, heading for the door. "I won't be long, a quick smoke then I'll try to ring Curly again on my way back in."

xxxxxx

Leigh waited and waited only Tim still hadn't returned and she was beginning to worry. She tried to remember what time he'd gone out. It was maybe thirty minutes now. Maybe he'd run into someone he knew, everywhere they went there was always someone who would stop Tim and want to talk. Or perhaps there was a queue for the payphone, or else it could be that he was waiting out front for Curly.

Once it had got past an hour though she knew he hadn't just got caught up, that something had happened. After an hour and a half she decided maybe she ought to try to get hold of Curly herself. Maybe he knew something, or at least might know what to do.

It was a little after half eleven when she called up Tim's house, only Leigh ended up with the last person she needed answering the phone.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Oh, sorry, um, is Tim there please?"

"Jesus girl, what the hell are you doing, ringing up on a Sunday morning, waking me up looking for that punk? He ain't here alright, doubt he even came home last night. Sorry to break it to you sweetheart but he ain't exactly the loyal type so why don't you quit wasting your time." He had started laughing then his laughter had degenerated into a hacking cough then he had hung up on her before she got the chance to ask if Curly was there instead.

Leigh didn't know what to do now. She could call Sylvia, she knew her friend wouldn't mind. Only she really didn't need yet another lecture from her on how Tim Shepard had let Leigh down again.

xxxxxx

"So who was that on the phone?" Curly demanded. The only way to get any sense out of Harry was by being firm, he'd learnt that from watching Tim over the years and now that he was finally taller and bigger than all of them Curly tried to use it to his own advantage too. It was unusual that Harry was ever even in the house on a Sunday morning, let alone awake and out of bed on the rare occasions that he had made it home. So it was just typical that he was around and poking his nose into things on the one weekend when everything was going to hell.

"Baby, don't speak to Harry like that." His mother spoke automatically, not looking at either of them.

"So tell him to answer the damn question. Who was on the phone?" Curly was hoping it might be Tim. He wanted to know what he was meant to do. Whether he should involve the rest of the gang, tell them to be on the look out for the River Kings, or whether it was all staying as something personal that Tim didn't want the others included in.

"What did I just say about your tone? Show a little damn respect boy," his mother continued, sounding more annoyed with him, but Harry just laughed again as he looked in the fridge, then the cupboards, before giving up and picking up a pack of cigarettes from the pile of boxes in front of Jean.

"Hell, just some little broad looking for the other loser. Guess she's another one who can't see past the fake charm."

Curly strode back out the kitchen as Harry's laughter continued to ring in his ears while his mother began defending Tim. It was a shame she never said anything good to his brother's face, he thought as he heard their conversation degenerate into yet another row.

He wondered if it had been Leigh ringing Tim, but if it was, then where was his brother? Tim hadn't been home, his bed hadn't been slept in so Curly had assumed he was still at the hospital. It gave Curly an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was still sat on the sofa, playing with his switch blade, flicking the blade in and out as he tried to decide what he should do when the phone started ringing again. Hearing Harry swearing from the kitchen about the racket, Curly leapt up, hoping to reach it before his stepfather did, relieved to see Angela holding the phone.

"Who is it?" He snapped as his sister turned to look at him, the concern in her voice as she spoke to the caller was worrying him.

"Tim. He wants to speak to you."

xxxxxx

So it seemed he had another day of rushing round after Tim. Curly hurried up the steps two at a time in to the hospital, cutting through the busy corridor before approaching the nurse at the desk. The room Leigh had been in was empty.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for my friend, she was in there last night. Where'd she go?"

"Well I would imagine she went home son. Her friend just came to collect her."

Curly exhaled deeply, a little out of breath, "Sylvia?" He asked, sure that's who it must have been.

"Well, I don't know honey, don't ask the names of every visitor in here. But I doubt his name was Sylvia."

"He?"

"Yeah, some boy with a smart mouth, although he still managed to charm the phone numbers out of a couple of my junior nurses." She laughed. "You might still catch them, depending on how long the line is - she had pharmacy to collect before she went home."

Curly rushed back down the steps, following the signs guiding him towards the pharmacy, and wishing Tim was here. He'd often wanted to be the one in charge, sorting things, only now he realised that maybe it wasn't actually worth the grief. Now it had come to it he didn't want to be the one stepping up and taking responsiblity for looking out for everyone else - Leigh, Angela, his mother, himself, even Tim. It was a whole lot easier playing at being the dumb one that no one trusted to do anything right. Looking around the room as he pushed open the door Curly felt relieved to spot Leigh at the counter, talking to the assistant. He headed towards her, jumping as someone suddenly grabbed him from the side, holding him in a headlock. Curly readied himself for a fight when he recognised the laughing voice of his attacker.

"Where's the fire Shepard? You ought to know better than running in corridors, ain't you learnt nothing in school?"

Looking up he saw the laughing face of Two-Bit Mathews smirking back down at him.

"Jesus Curly, you look like you need admitting. You having a heart attack or something?"

"Yeah, sorry just thought you were someone else for a minute. How come you're here?"

"O'Connell called me up, talking nineteen to the dozen about how she needed a ride, and some clothes and her purse but she couldn't get hold of your brother, or you. Feel a bit disappointed that I'm her third choice of a ride after you and Tim, to be honest." Two-Bit cracked another grin at Curly, "Since I got here she's been telling me a whole load of shit about River Kings and bar fights and Tim just disappearing into thin air. Between you and me, I reckon she's had too many of them pills already, not one bit of it makes any sense to me anyways. So how about you try to tell me what in hell's going on?"

xxxxxx

Looking round for Two-Bit, it surprised Leigh to see him deep in conversation with Curly Shepard. As she rejoined them they both stopped talking and right then Leigh knew there was something very wrong.

"Where's Tim?"

"He kind of got caught up." Curly's serious expression worried her even more.

"With what? Where is he? He just vanished, said he was going to go for a smoke then ring you to come meet us. Only he never came back." She was getting more scared by the second. Was it Pete, or worse his business partners from last night?

"He's been taken in for questioning, got picked up outside the hospital earlier apparently, he rung home from the station not long ago."

Leigh initially felt relieved that at least he was alright, somewhere safe. Until she realised what getting arrested could mean for Tim. "Why?"

"Assault. On Fry. Least that's what he said they been asking him about."

"What? How? He wasn't even there, it was me."

"Yeah well I guess someone wanted him out the way and pointed the cops in his direction after Jimmy got brought in the hospital."

"Dammit, how is that happening? He didn't do nothing to Jimmy."

"Yeah well I guess that don't matter when it's his word against Fry's at the end of the day." Two-Bit muttered.

"But his parole, they'll send him back..."

Her words trailed off and Two-Bit hugged her to his side, "Maybe it isn't going to get that bad, he shouldn't get that long just for a fight?"

She shook her head, "No, if he breaks his parole they can make him finish the rest the original sentence. Could be another year, maybe more." She looked hopefully up at Two-Bit as she asked, "can you take me to the police station? Do you think they'd let me see him?"

"I don't know, don't reckon it's a good idea."

"Come on Two-Bit?" She pleaded, "Or Curly, can you take me if he won't?"

"Hell, I never said I wouldn't take you, just don't think it's a great idea. You ever been to visit someone there before?"

"No. But it sure as hell won't be any worse than that godawful trip to McAlester was."

"Didn't know you went up there," Curly remarked, surprised.

"Yeah. Just the once, think you were still at the reformatory. Kind of didn't work out how I hoped. But things are different now, so either one of you drive me or I'll just go by myself."

"Yeah, yeah, ok. There ain't no sense in us all going so you better just come with me I guess." Curly offered.

xxxxxx

Over the years Tim had spent more hours than he cared to count in the holding cells at the police station. He still hadn't been charged with anything, but it sounded like they were looking to get him on breaking his release conditions, for being involved in fighting.

He didn't want to think about being back in McAlester. The whole experience had been tough on him and he had so much to lose now. Leigh. A job that was actually worth keeping. Curly and Angela. The possibility of a future worth having. If he'd wanted to he could have got away from his past, his reputation, only like an idiot he'd fallen back into it all pretty easily in the end.

It was his own fault that he'd thrown it away, blinded by that foolish, childish, need for revenge. He was well aware that he hadn't been able to leave well alone and put it behind him. It seemed crazy that it had come to this before he'd realised that none of that was important, that he'd probably fucked up his life over some assholes not even worth looking at twice.

xxxxxx

Leigh followed Curly into the building, let him talk to the officer behind the counter and after they'd waited for what seemed like forever a younger officer finally came out, calling her over and telling her she could come through and speak to Tim.

Following him through the door and away from the reception area and her friends, Leigh spotted Tim ahead of them being led towards a small room, and she caught his eye and smiled a little. It was so wrong that Tim was in there, he hadn't done anything to Jimmy. Taking a deep breath, Leigh spoke up, it was the only thing she could think of doing to fix things, set things right. "Excuse me?"

"Yes miss?" he paused, looking at the frightened looking young woman in front of him. She was a mess, her face looked bruised and there were dark circles under her eyes, her clothes creased and there was a hospital name band still tight around her wrist as she held her hand across her body.

"Who would I speak to if I had some information about something that happened?"

"Well, I guess you could talk to me." He smiled thinking it was always the same, some lovesick girl about to say she was with her loser boyfriend whenever the crime had happened. He felt a little sorry for her, and glancing across at Tim he wondered what on earth she saw in some hood with a bad reputation and a police record a mile long. Yet another so-called 'victim of her environment' as them dumbass hippy liberals liked to call them, more like a gullible fool though he thought to himself.

"It's just I know that Tim didn't do what you're charging him with. He didn't hurt Jimmy Fry."

"Really?" The officer tried not to laugh. "Was he with you? 'Cause it's amazing how many girls come in here trying to tell us their men were with them all night." He sighed, as she looked like she might burst into tears at any minute. "Look, you seem like a nice girl, but don't get yourself into trouble lying for some hood, ok?"

Leigh looked down at the floor, nervous now but knowing she needed to say this. "No. That ain't it. I'm not making anything up."

"Well, spit it out then, because this is all coming out of your visiting time you know."

"Yeah. I know. And I know it wasn't Tim who smashed that bottle over Jimmy Fry's head."

"Yeah? How's that?"

"Because he wasn't even there. It was me that did it."

* * *

><p>AN: Hmm...so a good idea from Leigh or not?...Well, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and huge thanks as always to everyone reading etc. :) (An Elegant Chaos - Julian Cope)


	14. There Goes the Fear

**There Goes the Fear**

Tim stared incredulously as he saw the cop suddenly change direction and lead Leigh further into the building, instead of into the same room as him. They'd said he had a visitor, and he'd been relieved when he'd seen her there, only now he felt confused about what was going on. He knew that the room down that end of the corridor was the other interview suite. He'd spent half the morning down there himself. But why were they talking to her? Was it because they were hoping to catch her out over something to incriminate him, or did they assume that she'd be willing to sell him out, confirm the story that he'd attacked Jimmy Fry without any reason?

Except the way she'd looked at him, her smile as she'd turned away and followed after the cop had given him a real bad feeling. It looked like being there was her choice, as though talking with the cop was what she wanted.

xxxxxx

"Hey you can go speak to your brother if you like," the desk sergeant called out to Curly from behind the counter.

"Sure, why – are they done already?"

But the sergeant just shrugged at him. "Look, you wanna talk to him or not?"

"Yeah, yeah." Curly pulled himself to his feet and loped across to the door, his hands pushed deep into his pockets as he tried to look relaxed and hide how much he hated being in this place. It didn't sound good if Leigh had finished talking to Tim so soon. Curly wondered how it was even possible that his brother could have fucked things up this quick.

Entering the room he sat down opposite Tim, remembering the last time they'd been sat in here together, nearly two years ago. Only that time their positions had been reversed, and he'd ended up spending that grim six months at the reformatory after taking the rap for Tim, pretty much for nothing as it had turned out, being as it was soon after that Tim had got jailed himself. It was funny how things worked out sometimes. Maybe if he'd just let Tim get sent down for that robbery then they wouldn't be in this wretched mess now. Right now Tim looked about as mad as he had that day when Curly had admitted to Tim's crime, so Curly figured he was right, something must have gone wrong and he was left feeling puzzled as to where Leigh was because he hadn't passed her in the corridor and she hadn't gone back to the waiting area.

"Why's she in there talking to the cops?" Tim demanded, no niceties to his conversation, his impatience evident as he got straight to the point.

"What? Who?" Curly asked, thrown.

"Jesus Curly do I have to spell everything out to you?" Tim hissed before continuing, his voice slower, more controlled again. "Leigh, you fucking dumbass. Who in hell do you think I mean? Why is she down the corridor in the interview room?"

"What? I don't know, thought she was in here talking to you, that's why we came here. She didn't say nothing about that. What the hell?"

"Fucked if I know. That's why I'm asking you." Tim glared at Curly, clearly unimpressed that he didn't have any answers, while Curly, who always found it hard being the focus of Tim's anger, had to look away. Annoyed with himself for letting Tim get to him he asked his own question.

"What they charged you with?"

"Nothing yet, keep asking me about whether I've been fighting with Fry. Told them the truth about that. Wasn't there, didn't see anything. I think they want to get me on breaking my parole conditions so they can send me back down to the pen. Don't think they're going to charge me with anything new at least. Just disturbing the peace and being involved in public disorder is enough to do that apparently, even if it is doing the town a favour to have Fry out of action for a while. You got any smokes?"

"Sure." Curly passed his brother the rest of his pack, watching as Tim lit the cigarette, then took a long drag on it, waiting until his brother was ready to start speaking again.

"So, was she alright?"

"Yeah. Bit freaked out about when you just disappeared earlier, but alright."

"You been keeping an eye on her for me?"

"Eventually, she ended up calling Mathews. Long story – she only got Harry at our place so I didn't know there was a problem until you rang."

"God, that's all you need, is he at home – is everything ok there? You spoke to Angela?"

"Yeah, she's fine, told her she needed to take care and not go out in case things kick off, just enough information so she knew I was serious, so hopefully she'll actually listen to me for once."

"You need to go speak to the others..." Tim began to reel off a whole list of instructions and Curly listened hard, trying to memorise them all.

xxxxxx

Down the other end of the corridor the detective strolled into the room into the room and drew up a chair opposite to Leigh. He was an unassuming looking man, medium height, brown hair, didn't stand out particularly - until he spoke. He had a deep, strong voice, oozing with confidence.

"Alright, let's get on with it then. My name's Detective Monroe. And you are?"

"Leigh. Leigh O'Connell."

The cop looked her over. "Any relation to Frank?"

"Uh-huh, he was my daddy."

"Yeah? Frank was a good guy, I knew him pretty well back in the day, saw him fight a few times. Shame to hear what happened to him," he paused, taking his time to settle into his chair and roll up his shirt sleeves as Leigh absorbed his words. "It seems you got yourself in a real old pickle then Miss O'Connell, so why don't you tell me what happened, in your own words?"

Leigh swallowed, she had it all worked out, no need to mention all the business with Tim or Pete, she was just focusing on what had happened. She wasn't nervous anymore, the fear had gone, she just wanted to get it over with now and she started talking, while the detective scribbled down some notes.

"Well, I was on my way to meet my boyfriend when I ran into Jimmy."

"Mr Fry? You know him then?"

"A little. Yeah."

"How do you know him?"

"Um...I used to, um, I used to date a friend of his."

"Really?" Monroe glanced up from his notepad to look at her. "Which one? Actually that don't matter, we'll come back to that if it's relevant. Carry on with describing what happened yesterday."

"Well, I don't know what was going on but he just seemed a little off, drunk or angry about something maybe, I thought he was gonna rob me or something. He threatened me with his knife and I then fell a little, knocked over the bins."

"You by yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Time?"

"Um, not really sure, didn't have my watch on, I think it was sometime between seven and half past."

"Which street?"

"Just off East 37th, about fifty yards past the pharmacy, there's a kind of service alley at the back the buildings, on the corner." He nodded at her to continue. "So anyway, he kind of came towards me with the knife and I just grabbed the first thing I could to try to stop him. Smashed that bottle over his head and he went out cold. Managed to get up and make it to the corner where I bumped into Curly Shepard and he helped me get to where I was meeting Tim."

"Kind of convenient, don't you think, running into the other Shepard like that?"

Leigh shrugged, disappointed with herself for maybe dropping Curly in it, "Guess he was looking to meet Tim too so we was heading to the same place, so not that unusual really."

Monroe wrote a little more, but apparently was letting it pass, "Ok, carry on."

"They - Tim and Curly - took me to the hospital. Don't remember much about that though. I got a whole load of stitches here, from where Jimmy knifed me." She gestured to her side. "Speaking of which, any chance I can have some water, I'm meant to keep taking the pills they gave me? It's kind of painful."

"Yeah, in a few minutes, I got a few more questions first." The cop looked her over, pretty sure he was getting half a story, because even though the main facts added up there was obviously more to it than she was telling him. Fry was a nasty piece of work, but he didn't have form for mugging girls, his crimes were often violent but not usually that small scale and he didn't usually go around stabbing people randomly unless there was some kind of beef between them. So Monroe asked Leigh a few more questions trying to trip her up over the details but she remained consistent with her story. Finally he got up, "Ok, we'll take a break. I'll send someone in with a glass of water. Then I'll be back, decide what I'm going to do with you."

Leigh shivered a little, unsure now what was going to happen to her, trying to focus on the positives, on the fact that at least Tim wasn't on a transport heading straight back to the state penitentiary. That maybe they wouldn't be too hard on her. She was a girl, it was self-defence, she hadn't ever been in trouble like this before.

xxxxxx

The cop who'd been loitering in the corner of the room and talking to his colleague through the open doorway stepped inside the room, causing Tim and Curly to break off their conversation.

"Ok Shepard, time to go." Tim and Curly both stood, surprised as the cop ushered them both towards the exit instead of separating them.

"What's going on?"

"Like I said, it's time to go – pick your property up at the front desk. Apparently were done holding you because we had someone else confess to the assault. Seems like you were actually telling the truth for once. So much as it pains me to let you walk out of here, you're off the hook – this time. Only condition is you got to come see Barnes, nine o'clock sharp tomorrow."

"What? Who?" Tim demanded, annoyed, even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"Your parole officer, remember?"

"Not him. I want to know who's confessed?"

"None of your business Shepard, so unless you want me to charge you with wasting police time then get your ass the hell out of here."

"Come on Tim," Curly urged, pushing his brother out through the door and back out to the almost empty waiting area and over to the desk, to collect his few personal possessions from the clerk.

Tim scowled at Curly but let his brother lead him out, not trusting himself to speak again yet. He didn't know how she could be so stupid as to turn herself in. He sure as hell didn't need her protecting him and giving him yet another thing to feel guilty about. Pushing his cash back into his pockets and putting on his watch, Tim glanced over his shoulder at Curly, before turning back to the man behind the desk.

"That girl you got in there, any chance I can visit with her?"

"She's talking to Monroe at the moment so it'll depend on if he charges her or lets her go. Why don't you ring in a couple of hours, see if they're done?"

"Yeah. Ok."

Leaving the building they walked across the street,

"So what you gonna do now Tim?"

"First off you're gonna give me my car keys."

"Yeah, here you go." Curly held them out to him and Tim grabbed the keys from his brother's hand, unlocking the driver's door.

"Get going on that list I gave you, I got someone to go and see." Then before Curly had any chance to get in the car, Tim had driven off, leaving his brother angrily watching from the roadside.

xxxxxx

Taking his time in the corridors, Tim eventually managed to find the ward where Jimmy was laid up and he waited patiently until there was no one around and his visitors had headed out the room towards the cafeteria, caught up in their own conversation and not noticing Tim who pushed open the door and headed inside a minute or so after they had left.

"Afternoon Jimmy."

Fry's eyes had snapped open at the sound of Tim's voice, a look of disbelief on his face. There were bandages on his skull, cuts to the right side of his face where the glass had shattered and cut into him.

"What the fuck? You're meant to be in the damn jail."

"Why? 'Cause you gave me up Jimmy? Didn't know you was a rat, is that how things are going these days – you in bed with the cops?"

"Fuck off Shepard. What the hell are you doing here anyway?"

"You are not going to press any charges."

"On who? You're here so they obviously ain't liking you for it."

"You know exactly who."

Jimmy laughed, then winced a little at the pain in his head. "The girl? Christ, never thought she'd have it in her to do it in the first place, let alone admit to it. Finally makes me see what you and Myers seen in her a little bit, never really got it before. But a fiery little thing like that, she that wild in the sack or something? Is that why you keep her around?"

He smirked at Tim, who struggled to control his anger, even laid up Fry remained a grade-A jerk. Jimmy continued speaking,

"But why should I drop the charges? Reckon her in trouble would screw with your head just the same as you being jailed yourself. Heard them women's prisons are pretty wild places."

Tim edged closer to the bed, glancing around as he did so. "Couple of reasons – hardly gonna sound good is it, the great Jimmy Fry, tough second in command of the River Kings, put out of action by a little girl."

"Asshole, what do I care, fucking glassing me like that she deserves it."

"And when it's in court and she tells everyone how you knifed her - reckon your family will still think you're so tough then, attacking her like that?"

"Like I said, why should I give a shit?"

"Well ok, that's your choice, only if you decide that's still what you want to do just remember I'll come after every single member of your family. Who is it you all live with Jimmy – your grandma? And how many little sisters is it you got at home too? Two? No, I'm wrong, it's three ain't it? That them here just now? – Nice looking family, can hardly believe they're related to you. Shame if they all ended up in some nasty accident, but then there's so much you got to be careful of nowadays, can't be safe anywhere."

"Fuck you Shepard, you leave them out of it."

Jimmy tried to sit up a little, his eyes blazing as he glowered at Tim, but Tim easily pushed him back against the pillows, his voice low and menacing as he held Jimmy in place.

"Don't think that I can anymore. See the minute you and your buddy decided Leigh was fair game you changed everything. Seems like nothing and nobody's off-limits now, and that includes your family." He leant in even closer to Jimmy as he asked his final question, "So we got a deal then Fry?"

After a few seconds Jimmy nodded reluctantly.

"Not good enough, I need to hear you say it."

"Yeah, we got a deal. I ain't gonna press no charges on the girl, now get the hell out of here before they come back."

"Yeah, be seeing you around Jimmy." Tim walked nonchalantly out of the room, hands in his pockets and a grim smile on his face.

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks as always to everyone reading the story. Well, I had this written so thought I might as well go ahead and upload it today rather than wait. I hope you liked it? Hopefully it's a believable reaction from Tim. I really would love to know what you think so I'd be incredibly grateful for some feedback from you guys on what you think about the story (good, bad, indifferent?), as I've been worrying over this story so so much! (There Goes the Fear - Doves)


	15. Enjoy the Silence

**Enjoy the Silence**

It had been hours since Leigh had started talking to the detective. He'd been in and out the room, asking her questions now and then, getting her to repeat things she had already told him again and again and again.

Monroe wasn't dumb, he'd spent enough years around the East side of Tulsa to know he was being sold a story of sorts. But then again at the end of the day he knew that no one was really going to care if one bunch of hoods took out another. If the old dear who'd found Fry in the gutter hadn't called the cops then he doubted whether they'd have known anything at all about any of it, let alone been investigating it. Just so long as they kept their trouble out of sight and in their own side of town then the majority of people couldn't give a damn what these kids did to each other. And she seemed a decent enough kid, polite to his face at least, held down a job, it would be a shame to trash yet another kid's life before they even got to twenty.

So finally, at just before five, he'd gone back in the room one last time. "Ok, guess I'm gonna let you go. Seems for some unknown reason Mr Fry has called up and changed his mind about wanting to press charges on anyone, and can't exactly explain why he suggested to us that it was down to Mr Shepard in the first place. Guess he got confused, what with being hit in the head so hard," his cynical tone making it obvious that he didn't believe any of it.

"So I can just go home?" Leigh asked hopefully, standing up.

"Yes."

"Thank you." She smiled, feeling a mixture of surprise and gratitude that it was finally over.

"Ok then." Monroe held the door open for her, asking one last question as she went to walk past him, "Earlier, when you said you knew one of Fry's friends – which one?"

"Pete," she replied quietly, puzzled about why he wanted to know.

"Myers?"

"Yeah."

"Sure seems you got a type then, like hanging around with the bad boys a bit too much?"

"They ain't nothing alike, if you really knew them," Leigh said defensively.

Monroe laughed. "Not that different from what I've seen of the pair of them. Maybe it's about time you start thinking about things a bit more, I'm pretty sure your old man wouldn't have approved of you hanging round guys like either of them two. Oh, and you'll be staying in town, won't you? Might have a few follow-up questions, paperwork to tie up and such."

xxxxxx

Tim pulled up outside the police station and saw Leigh sitting across the street on the steps of an office building in the last of the warm evening sunshine, her arms hugging her knees to her chest. She hurried towards him as he got out the car, throwing her arms around him.

"Thanks for coming to get me."

He half-heartedly returned her embrace, not smiling at all. "Come on, let's get out of here, we'll pick up some of your stuff, then go home."

"Yeah, ok."

As he'd driven off Leigh had tried to speak to him, but Tim's replies were terse and they soon settled into an uneasy quiet. Tim kept glancing at her from the corner of his eye and she looked uncomfortable and confused, playing anxiously with her hair as she looked out the car window. There was a lot he wanted to say but he didn't know where, or how to start. Tim didn't even really understand his mood himself. The relief had been immense when he'd got the call from her. But now it came to it he found he was feeling angry and frustrated about her actions when he knew he should just be happy to have her back. His visit with Jimmy, followed by all the waiting, the not knowing what was happening aside from that things were out of his hands now he'd done what he could to sort them, had all served to wind him up tighter than he had imagined possible. He wasn't even feeling any calmer now that they were getting away from the place. There was no more conversation in the car for the rest of the journey and the unpleasant atmosphere remained as Tim stalked ahead of her up the steps to the door.

Once they were inside Leigh stopped, turning to face Tim as she finally broke the awkward silence, "You mad at me Tim? 'Cause you could have just told me to find some other way home when I called you. No one forced you to come get me."

"Mad at you? No, course I ain't mad at you." He spoke slowly, his voice hard and sarcastic.

His frustrations were getting the better of him only he wasn't exactly good at voicing things like that. So instead of telling her how much he'd been worried about her being kept at the police station, or her actually being arrested and charged, he defaulted to anger.

"I'm not mad Leigh 'cause I'm fucking furious. What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"I…" but he cut her off before she could reply.

"Or did you even think about it at all?"

"Course I did. I ain't stupid."

"Really? Don't seem that way to me. This has to be about the dumbest thing you ever done girl. I don't need you doing shit like that for me. I can take care of myself."

Hurt by his words, Leigh's shoulders slumped and she felt like she needed to put some space between them, thinking maybe it had been better when he hadn't been talking to her after all, and she headed into the kitchen.

"Why don't you just go home then? Doubt you want such an idiot as me around anyways."

Leigh reached for a glass from the shelf, wincing in pain as she stretched up too quickly having momentarily forgotten her stitches, before pushing the discomfort aside and continuing to fill the glass with water. Across the room Tim rolled his eyes at her protest, too caught up in his own thoughts to notice her distress.

"Now you are being really fucking stupid. I'm not leaving you here in the middle of town on your own. Not when we got no idea what's going on or if it's even safe right now. Just go pick out some clothes and whatever other stuff it is that you want to bring and come back to the house, like we agreed."

"Why? So you can make me feel even worse than I do already?" she snapped, her eyes downcast as she tried to hide how terrible she was feeling. She waited for Tim to speak, to reassure her, only his words didn't come, and suddenly it all seemed too much. The things people - like Sylvia, Two-Bit, even that cop earlier - had been saying to her since they'd ended up together again crowded into her mind, overwhelming her. Maybe it wasn't really worth it after all. She felt tired and fed up, and found herself wishing she still had her father to run back to, to reassure her that everything would be ok, like he had all those times when she was small after her mother had gone or she'd been in trouble at school, when he'd always known what to say to make her feel better.

Glancing back she saw Tim still just glaring at her, and she paused in the doorway to speak. "You starting to think it ain't worth the grief, wish you'd never met me?"

Tim watched her walk away, stunned that she was even thinking that. There'd been other girls in his life before Leigh. Plenty of girls on and off over the years and he'd used them and discarded them as the mood had taken him. Some had been good company, others he barely remembered their names - if he'd even known it in the first place. Being with them had been little more than a distraction, a bit of fun, if they left him before he'd dumped them he'd laugh it off, say something crude to the guys,and claim to have ended it himself anyway. None of them had really mattered.

Only things were different with this girl, the one he couldn't get out his head, the one he actually wanted to keep around. Did that make him soft? Maybe. Or maybe now he just wanted more from his life than struggling to make ends meet. For as long as Tim could remember he'd had to do whatever it took to make things a little easier for Curly and Angela because no one else was going to help them. Things had reached the stage now where he'd realised he wanted something more for himself too, because there had to be more to life than a reputation as a tough hood with a gang and a criminal record. He was realistic enough to know that couldn't last forever, that at some point in the not too distant future he'd need to decide whether to get involved in more serious business like Pete clearly already had, or follow Nick's example and turn his back on it all.

Right now though the only thing Tim was sure of was that he didn't want this to end, not here like this at any rate, so he needed to do something. Except he didn't know what to do to make it work. There were no good relationships in his family. His major memory of the years before his father had left was the fighting, the shouting, the constant bickering between his parents. Then they'd experienced his mother bringing home every variation on a step father imaginable before she'd finally settled with Harry. Probably Tim's only experience around a halfway normal home had been the brief glimpses of it hanging around the Miller place with Nick when they were kids.

Pulling himself together he followed her into the room. Only she wasn't getting ready, she was sat on the floor leaning back against the side of the bed, a photo in her hands, tears in her eyes. Seeing her like that, looking so fragile, it finally hit him exactly how much she was hurting - not only from her injuries but from his words, as well as the fucked up events of the last twenty-four hours and he crossed the room and sat beside her, taking the picture from her hands. It was of Leigh and her father, from when she'd been about nine or ten from the looks of things.

"Dont reckon I'd be in this much of a mess if he was still here. You know I miss him so much, it ain't fair."

"No it's not and there ain't nothing going to change that, but least we got each other. Reckon Frank would have given me hell for landing you in all of this, that is if he'd even let me back near you again in the first place," he said, slipping an arm around her shoulders, happy to notice the small smile on her face at his words.

"Yeah, reckon a lot of things would have worked out different, doubt he'd have been too impressed with me getting myself caught up with Pete, he never did care for him, or his brother. Probably should have thought about that when he first asked me out."

"Look, I know I don't always get it right and I'm not good at this stuff, but I do know that being with you is worth it. It ain't really you that I'm mad at, alright? Guess it's been a long couple of days for both of us and everything's just catching up with me. Reckon we could both do with a good nights sleep." Tim kissed her softly but the fear at how close he could have been to losing her once again pushed itself into the front of his mind and despite his good intentions he found himself unable to let it go. "It's just do you actually know how lucky you are, not getting charged or nothing? It ain't a joke. It's real serious shit, you could have got jailed."

"Yeah, I guess, but I figured it was unlikely though. I mean I haven't ever been in real trouble before and it was self-defence and all. It might surprise you but I did actually think about what I was getting myself into, I didn't just do it on a whim, for the hell of it."

"Still could have gone the other way though. You don't belong in someplace like that Leigh, you're better than all that."

"I only did it for you, for us. You can't go back to that place again either. I know you've not told me a lot about it but its damned obvious from how you are when you ever mention it that it was a nightmare."

Tim looked away, not wanting to think about it now. "Hell and that just makes me feel even more lousy. I'm meant to look after you, not the other way around. Ain't that how it's supposed to work? The guy takes care of his girl?"

Leigh sighed, "It's great you want to take care of me and all, but it has to work both ways Tim. If things are gonna work out this time then you've got to let me be part of this as well, take care of you too. I ain't one of your gang that you get to tell what I can and can't do, or some possession to just take out when you want some fun."

"Jesus I know that, only that's about all I'm good at - taking care of things, protecting what's mine, my family."

Leigh shook her head a little, pulling herself carefully back to her feet, "You know you're better at it all than you think, I wouldn't have done this again if I thought otherwise. Come on, let's get out of here."

xxxxxx

Wednesday 14th June 1967

Tim's parole meeting had been as he expected. Barnes had read him the riot act, going in to great detail about how close he'd been to getting sent back to McAlester, stating how it was obvious just from the state of him that Tim had been fighting, and how damned lucky he was that the cops hadn't just used his appearance of bruises and cuts to charge him with public disorder anyways. So now Tim was keeping his head down, being the model employee in his job while Curly, Ryan and the others tried to keep tabs on what was going on around town for him.

Not that any of them had found out anything remotely useful so far. Things had gone eerily quiet, there was hardly any chat around town over what had gone down at Murphy's, each getting different contradictory stories, while Pete appeared to have gone to ground, Danny hearing from his cousin that he hadn't shown up for work on the Monday. Tim wasn't convinced that it was the end, seemed too easy for things to have just blown over like that so he had persuaded Leigh to stay with him a little longer.

Despite Tim's misgivings, by Wednesday Leigh had told him she was well enough to go back to work, that she would be better off there than hiding away in the bedroom at his house while he was out, because there was no guarantee that either Curly or Angela would be around at home and she had no wish to stay there with just his mother for company.

"Hell, one of them'll stay here if I tell them to. It ain't like they got school at the moment so there's no reason one of 'em can't stop at home," he snapped.

"Honest Tim, It'll be fine. All I do is sit there in the office and type or answer the phone, If you drive me then it ain't no difference hardly to sitting here all day. Besides, I kind of need to talk to Ed, properly, not just on the phone. I expect they've all heard rumours about me getting questioned, you know what this town's like and some of the reporters got all sorts of contacts down the station anyways. I can't exactly afford to lose my job. Plus I ought to think about going home sometime."

xxxxxx

It was late in the afternoon when the coach pulled up at the depot, the people jostling each other as they piled off at this final destination. He watched them leave, he was in no hurry. After travelling for three days having to wait for a few more minutes was neither here nor there. Finally he shuffled along the aisle with his duffle bag slung over his back, his limp even more pronounced as he climbed gingerly down the steps and out into the hot dusty air. After spending all those hours cramped up in the narrow seats his legs were painful, the joints aching and his right thigh throbbing where the bullet had been lodged. But it had been worth it to get back here quicker. It felt so right being back, to take in the familiar surroundings of Tulsa once again as he looked around.

"Hey man, must be good to get back home at last?" the driver asked, grinning as he took in the uniform then reached out to shake the younger man's hand. "You back from overseas?"

"Yeah."

"You got family coming here to meet you?"

"No, thought I'd surprise them."

"Well good luck, reckon they'll be made up to see you back."

"Yeah, let's hope so." He shuffled off down the street, three blocks in thinking maybe it had been a mistake not getting someone to meet him as the pain in his thigh increased. Finally though he began to feel even more at home as he reached his own neighbourhood, two streets and he'd been home. On the journey he'd imagined getting off the bus and going for a beer, but now he was glad he'd decided to go to the house first. Hopefully it'd be quiet, he could sit on the sofa and just relax, enjoy his own space. Fishing for his keys as he walked up the path, he unlocked the front door, pushing it open and grinning as he saw the familiar hallway, a jacket slung over the bannister, shoes kicked to the side. Only the smile didn't last very long as he heard the voice of the man to his side, spotted the gun from the corner of his eye.

"Move slowly, come on in and shut the door, real slow."

"What the hell? Jesus, it's me you fucking idiot, put the damn gun down and tell me what you think you're doing."

* * *

><p>AN: Thank you to everyone reading :)

I hope you liked this chapter ? ... I've kind of been working on the theory that Tim's smart enough to want more out of life than spending his time as a second-rate criminal now he's older. It seems like he cared about / would do whatever it took to look after Curly and Angela, so I think it's believable he has the potential to maintain other relationships, even if it is a struggle for him to figure out exactly what it is he wants out of life sometimes. Hope that makes some kind of sense!

Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode.


	16. Going Underground

**Going** **Underground**

Back across town Curly was hanging around with Ryan and Jamie, killing time on the front lot of the Standard, while they watched Danny work.

"I don't like it, got a bad feeling about it all."

"Why? You looking to bail on Tim and the rest of us or something Ryan?"

"Didn't say that."

"Then what are you saying?" Curly persisted, drawing himself up to his full height.

"Easy there junior, you're not Tim so don't go getting no delusions about being in charge. I ain't doing nothing just 'cause you tell me to, understand? Reckon we need to know what's happening with Myers first, 'cause it'll be a whole different ball game if his business associates are gonna be involved too. I mean no one's seen him since Saturday, maybe he's off somewhere working with his suppliers."

"Or maybe they put him out of action - permanently." Jamie offered, laughing.

"Well whatever it is we need to find out something, my brother's expecting it. Just no one seems to have seen or heard a thing about Myers Since Saturday night. Heard Fry came out the hospital, but he's laid up at home, people just seem to be keeping their distance from Pete."

"Don't blame them, I take it you've been by the house?"

Curly rolled his eyes, "Yes Ryan, I've been past the house. Been by at least three times a day, but it's just all shut up, no sign that he's there, no car. Could be holed up inside I guess but I'm not fool enough to go strolling in the front door by myself. Tim said to find shit out, not get caught up in it."

"Well that's got to be a first, Curly Shepard actually listening."

"Get lost Ryan, everyone knows you're the one who don't listen, always got your own stuff going on and thinking Tim don't notice none of it, that he don't realise you want to take his place."

Ryan laughed. "Well I reckon I could do a hell of a lot better job than he's done lately, wouldn't catch me getting myself in shit like this over some broad."

"Can it Ryan," Curly launched himself at Lang, grabbing the front of his shirt as he pinned him against the car. "There's more to it than that and you damn well know it, so why don't you stop bitching behind his back like a little girl and do something useful?"

"Jesus guys, just quit it before my boss sees you. Look, I'll speak to my cousin later, find out if Myers showed up back to work yet."

"Cheers Danny," Curly grinned as he relaxed his grip on Ryan, relieved for some support.

"No problem, look I got to get back to work, tell Tim to come by tomorrow or something, I should hopefully have some information for you either way." Danny said, before turning and heading back into the workshop.

"Yeah, I'm off too, meeting some broad I met, over at Jay's. You wanna come Shepard? She might have a friend who's desperate enough to go for you?" Jamie smirked as he spoke.

Curly cuffed him around the head, laughing as they walked off together, leaving Ryan still glaring at them from the forecourt. "Yeah, alright. Tim don't get home for at least another hour or so and who knows, we might hear some chat while we're over there I guess."

xxxxxx

"Dammit man, I can't believe you're back, why didn't you call?" Pete grinned as best he could, happy to see his brother in front of him after all these months. Aside from the uniform and the haircut Wayne looked just the same, and in a hell of lot better shape than Pete, despite his own injuries.

"Does it matter? Wouldn't have made much difference anyways. Only found out Monday morning they were letting me take some leave before I got to return to the base and start working again. They decided I can't go back to the frontline with my leg like this, but I'm not injured enough for a discharge. Spent the last two days on buses getting back here." Wayne grinned back at his brother but it was not a friendly smile.

"So how bad was it? Is it as bad as people say over there? It's been a long time since we heard anything from you, you going to see the old man?"

"Yeah, I'll go see him sometime. But I don't want to talk about the rest of it right now." Wayne was silent for a couple of seconds, subconsciously rubbing at the ever-present pain in his thigh, before he continued. "Besides, I'm more interested in what crap you've managed to land yourself in this time that means you're pointing a gun at my head when I walk in the door."

"Hell, it all would all have worked out just fine if it hadn't been for that double-crossing little broad." Pete ran his hand nervously through his hair as he spoke, his expression full of hatred.

"There's more to this than just some broad because I'm pretty sure no girl left you in that state," Wayne remarked, looking at the mess his brother was in. Even in the gloom of the room with the blinds half drawn it was obvious how badly Pete had been beaten. He was covered in cuts and bruises, his left eye barely open and his left arm held awkwardly against his side so probably something broken in there. Plus he was nervous, on edge every time he heard a noise in the street outside. His brother had always been more highly strung, more affected by his emotions than Wayne, but this behaviour was extreme even for Pete.

"You seen a doctor?"

"No, couldn't risk it, just been here since it happened."

"Which was when?"

"Saturday night."

"Jesus Pete, so you've been holed up in here for four days? What the hell's been going on?"

Pete just shrugged.

"Not good enough. So why don't you get me a drink and talk me through it all, from the start, and don't leave anything out?"

Pete shuffled out to the kitchen, returning with a half drunk bottle of some cheap looking booze under his good arm and a couple of glasses, poured them both a drink. Then, after handing one to his brother he began to talk, and once he'd starting speaking it was like he couldn't stop as he offloaded everything that had gone down. He was soon telling Wayne all about the sweet deal he'd had going on and the money he'd been making. About how he'd got with Leigh, how things were real good between them. How things had been real good all round until Shepard had got back to town and thrown a spanner in the works, how she'd left him to go back to that loser. Then the fuck up over the weekend when he'd tried to fix things but instead had only resulted in dropping him in it with Mack, meaning the suppliers didn't know whether to trust him anymore, or whether to think he was just a major screw up who couldn't handle the deal anyway. Not that it really mattered which they thought because they'd left him like this and shut down the operation. So he had ended up stuck here on his own, Jimmy had been in hospital and everyone else had deserted him quicker than he'd thought possible.

As he finally finished his story Wayne looked at him in disbelief. "Thought we agreed you would leave all that alone when they collared me for it?"

Pete looked a little sheepish, "Yeah well, about three or four months after you went, they came to me with an offer, a business proposal, seemed too good to turn down..."

"Honestly Pete, can't believe you were such an idiot. I told you when I got caught to steer clear of them didn't I? Thought you understood that."

"Yeah, I know, but it seemed foolproof."

"Always does, when you're the one who'll end up in the shit. Never comes back on the bastards at the top, does it?"

"Yeah, well, everything would still be going good if it weren't for Tim fucking Shepard."

"Maybe, or maybe he done you a favour, getting you chucked out before it all ended up going to hell."

"Still want to finish him. Coming back here, screwing with my business, taking my girl."

"Your girl?" Wayne laughed. "She was never really yours and you know it. You could see it as plain as day that given the chance she was always going to end up going back to him - it was obvious when we got him sent down, the way she was moping around the boxing club, that she wasn't over him that easy. So that's your own damn fault for not using your head, you always were easily distracted round her and only saw what you wanted to see."

"Fuck off Wayne. You weren't even here. We were good together, before he came back round stirring things up."

"Might well have been, but I'm sorry to say you were probably just a poor substitute for Shepard, not that she probably realised that either."

"Jesus, you amateur psychology hour or something? You been doing counselling in that hospital or something?"

"Don't knock it kid, 'cause it seems I got a better grip on what was really going on here in five minutes than you've had this last year Pete. But you still ain't explained why you're sitting in here with a gun in your hand. Who exactly you scared of?"

"Got a bad feeling Mack's coming back for me. Finally persuaded them she'd been lying to them and that it had been Shepard stealing the goods, but not until they'd beat me half to death. But don't think it mattered anyway, guess they figured I was to blame for being so incompetent that I let it happen in the first place then wasnt even able to sort it myself. Still owe them money, a couple hundred bucks I think. So I don't know if they are coming back, but I just figured it was safer if I was prepared. Then Shepard's got to be pissed, he's already paid Jimmy a visit in the hospital 'cause of what Jimmy did."

"Which was?"

"He hurt her, lashed out at Leigh and cut her up some with his switch blade. Stupid damn idiot, doing that to her. So I'm pretty sure Shepard will come after me for that too, probably thinks I sent Fry after her and told him to hurt her again."

"Again?"

"Yeah, well, I kind of lost my temper when I found out they'd got back together and I hit her some. Not exactly my finest moment."

"Jesus Pete, you don't do things by halves do you? Is there anyone left in town you ain't got wishing you dead? Don't look like I'm gonna get a relaxing two weeks after all. Seems I'm stuck sorting your shit out, just like old times."

"Hell I'm sorry Wayne, you think you can fix it?"

"Don't look like I've got any choice does it? Looks like we're in for a long night. Now tell me everything again, from the beginning. Don't leave anything out. Then I'll see if I can come up with a plan."

xxxxxx

"Damn, it's good to have some space, without someone walking in on us every five minutes," Tim grinned, stepping closer to Leigh and taking into his arms and kissing her.

"See, told you it was a good idea for me to come back home." She smiled back at him, "You're gonna stay tonight?"

"Hell, just you try to stop me. Just need to call by the house sometime this evening, catch up with Curly quickly, but it won't take long."

"Oh, ok. You hungry, want me to make some dinner first?"

"Nah, not yet, got better things we could be doing before that." He smiled at her, his hands moving to the zipper on the back of her dress as they kissed again.

xxxxxx

Thursday 15th June 1967

Pete woke with a start, the panic setting in as he realised he wasn't alone. It was the first time he'd slept for any length of time since the weekend but he wasn't feeling any better for it and his head was pounding, his back aching from falling asleep in the armchair. And then he relaxed slightly as he remembered that it was only Wayne who was there, watching him from across the room with an amused expression on his face.

"What time is it?"

"A little after ten thirty."

"Dammit, can't believe I slept that late. You should have woken me."

"Guess these last few days are finally catching up with you little brother."

"Yeah, I guess. Did you sleep at all?"

"A little. Now how's about I get you some coffee, then I'll tell you what I decided to do."

"You got a plan?"

"Yeah, should work, only I don't think you're gonna like it much." Wayne remarked, then headed out to the kitchen, "Come on, I'll tell you the details."

Pete ambled after his brother, scratching his head as he tried to wake up fully, listening as Wayne talked him through it, his expression going from disbelief, to frustration through to anger as Wayne spoke.

"So what do you think, kid?"

"What do I think? Reckon you've gone crazy over there Wayne, you get hit in the head as well as the leg or something? How the fuck is that getting at Shepard? Why the fuck should he get to keep everything and still play happy families with her when he's screwed everything up for me?"

"Dammit Pete. There's more to this than the girl ditching you. And there's more to this than Tim Shepard wanting to get at you. Hell, them two are the least of your worries. You need to see the bigger picture and we need to make sure you don't get no comeback from Mack's boys first and foremost. That's my offer to help you, take it or leave it?"

"You don't mean that?"

"Yeah? You done a bang up job of managing things so far Pete. So either do it my way, or I'll get the next bus back out of here, spend the rest my leave someplace else having a hell of a lot better time than this is turning out to be. Your choice."

Pete looked at his brother, shocked, but knowing he couldn't fix things by himself. "Yeah, ok then, we'll do it your way."

"Well done, knew you'd see sense sooner or later." Wayne grinned at his little brother, ruffling his hair like he used to when they were kids, before heading towards his bedroom, "Now guess I might take a nap, before I set this thing in motion. Reckon you'll be ok?"

* * *

><p>AN: Thank you all for reading as always :) and I hoped you liked this chapter. Sorry there's not much from Tim, but I needed to include this to move the plot along some more. There'll be lots more from Tim in the next chapter, I promise, and hopefully I will have the next update ready fairly soon.

Going Underground - The Jam


	17. Changes

**Changes**

Thursday 15th June 1967

It was a little after six in the evening when they pulled up outside Leigh's building.

"Go open the door, I got this."

"You sure? I can take something?"

"No, you shouldn't be carrying nothing yet, just go unlock, ok?"

Leigh hurried up the stairs ahead of Tim while he manhandled the full grocery bags out the trunk of the car, only the key didn't turn, the door was already unlocked. She figured maybe she'd forgotten to lock it in the morning, and she smiled to herself as she remembered how they had been more than a little distracted and running late earlier that day.

Only her smile didn't last long. Leigh stepped inside and turned towards the kitchen to wait for Tim before coming to a grinding halt after barely her first step, the colour draining from her face as she realised there was someone else already there, sat at her kitchen table.

"What the hell..., does no-one in your family ever knock? What the hell you doing here?"

"Well, hey there darling, sure is nice to see you too. Hope you don't mind me making myself at home?" Wayne grinned across at her as he gestured to the glass in front of him a little, then lifted it to his lips and slowly taking a sip, "Although I was kind of hoping you might have Mr Shepard with you."

Right on cue Tim appeared behind her, "Leigh, quit standing in the way, I got this stuff to bring in..."

"Well ain't this nice? She's sure got you real domesticated Tim."

"What the fuck?" Tim's surprise was evident in his voice, but he gathered himself quickly, dropping her bags slowly down on to the floor and trying to give Leigh a reassuring look. "When did you get back to town then Wayne?"

"About a week too late from the state of my brother."

"Is he ok?" Leigh asked quietly.

"Yeah, he'll survive, although it's no thanks to you is it sweetheart?"

"Don't you fucking dare blame her, anything that happened to Pete is his own damn fault," Tim said angrily.

"Hell it's alright Shepard, calm down there. I know my brother's his own worst enemy."

"So that means you're here why?" Tim took a couple of steps closer to Wayne, placing a hand on Leigh's shoulder, all the while not taking his eyes off the other man.

"Look, I don't want no more trouble, I just want to talk some is all."

"You think I'm gonna trust you?"

"I doubt it, can't say I blame you either. But I'm a lot different from how I was two years ago Tim, my priorities have changed some and I ain't interested in dragging up all that old shit between us again. My main aim right now is to keep my brother from getting himself killed. So if that means settling things once and for all with you, then so be it."

"Why d'you think stopping anything happening to Pete would be of any interest to me?"

"Because underneath it all we ain't that different and you know it. Family's important to you too." Wayne paused, taking another sip from the glass in front of him. "Plus there's a fair chance that once they've dealt with him they'd decide to come looking for you. Or the girl. So how about we sit down, just the two of us, and talk it through and see if we can come up with something we can both agree on?"

"Yeah, ok. You wanna give us ten minutes here darling? "

"No, not really."

Surprised, Tim took her by the arm leading her away from Wayne a little before speaking in a low quiet voice.

"Leigh? Just give us some space. Go take a shower and change or something, wait in the bedroom? This ain't nothing you want to be concerned with."

"It ain't nothing for me to be concerned with? After everything that happened at the weekend you still think that? No. If you're gonna be here in my home then I get to be involved in whatever's going on."

"Just us or no deal Shepard," Wayne called out, amused by their bickering.

Tim sighed, not really wanting to exclude her but knowing this was probably the only opportunity he was going to get to settle it and he was well aware that he needed to keep Wayne onside. Glancing back over his shoulder he called to Wayne,

"How about a compromise? Let's the two of us head down to Charlie's, grab a beer. It's probably pretty quiet this time of day, give us a chance to talk things through."

"Yeah, ok." Wayne started to walk towards the door, "Nice seeing you as always Leigh."

"Tim, please?" Leigh looked at him, her worry obvious as she gripped his hand.

"I'll be right behind you Myers."

Wayne nodded, then headed through the door.

"Please don't shut me out, not again."

"It's alright. I ain't gonna do nothing stupid." He kissed her quickly. "I'll be back soon and I'll tell you everything, I promise."

Walking into the bar, Tim saw a couple of old regulars leaning on the bar and Wayne already sat at a table at the back of the bar. Speaking to Charlie he ordered two beers, before crossing the room and sitting down opposite Wayne. Tim slid the second beer bottle across the table towards Wayne. "Ok then Myers, let's hear what you got to say."

xxxxxx

Leigh was nervous the whole time Tim was gone, and resorted to keeping busy in an attempt to occupy herself. In the end she resorted to unpacking the groceries, glancing up at the clock again she saw another five minutes had passed. Next she started tidying up a little, and another ten minutes went by before she crossed the room and looked out the door down to the street. They must still be in the bar, there was no sign of either of them, no raised voices, so presumably things were ok. Maybe she could cook something, at least that would keep her busy instead of watching the seconds crawl past on the clock.

xxxxxx

"Hey I'm back." Tim smiled to himself as he saw Leigh sat on the sofa, the unread magazine dropping to the floor from her hand as she tried to look calm and not like she hadn't spent the last hour worrying herself stupid over what was going on and whether he was alright.

"You ok?"

"Yeah," Tim replied as he sat down next to her.

"You gonna tell me what he had to say?"

"Yeah I will, only later. Just don't hassle me right now, ok?" Tim replied, instantly irritated with himself for being annoyed at her when he saw the hurt expression on her face as she sank back into the corner of the sofa away from him.

"You want to eat? I kind of made something while you were out, although I can't guarantee it'll be edible, was finding it pretty hard to concentrate."

Leigh forced a smile onto her face as she looked to Tim and although eating was the last thing on his mind after his chat with Wayne, it was obvious to him she was trying her best to do what he'd asked, to not get at him, so he found himself smiling back, "Yeah, that'd be great."

Leigh quickly, quietly served the food, setting the plates on the table as Tim crossed the room to join her. They ate quietly, the only noise the radio in the background until around halfway through her meal she set down her cutlery, her appetite gone, before sipping at her glass of water.

Tim glanced up at her, pushing his own empty plate away, his own appetite awoken since he'd started eating. "You eating that?"

"No, guess I'm not really hungry, you can have it if you like." She slid her own plate across to him.

A few minutes later she broke the silence between them. "Reckon I need to get a new door lock, or a new place or something, I'm getting pretty sick of people thinking they can just stroll in here when they please."

"Getting a new place sounds a good idea. Somewhere with a bit more space and someplace where you weren't with him would be good too. Kind of winds me up knowing he's been here, with you." Tim had finally finished eating, pushing the second plate away from him.

"Jesus Tim, you don't need to let that bother you still. It ain't like you've never had another girl in your bed is it? But I'm supposed to be ok with that, not be bothered?"

"Hell, that was different. You know none of them ever meant anything to me, weren't anything serious to me, not like you and him apparently were."

"Yeah? And you know I only want to be with you don't you? That I picked being with you over staying with Pete, so please can you just let it go?" Leigh replied, frustrated that it was still bothering Tim.

"Yeah, I know. Still think it would be better to get another place, back in the old neighbourhood instead of over here though."

Leigh walked round the table, taking the plates towards the sink. "Mmm, would be great, but in case you'd forgotten I'm not exactly flush with cash. Even the rent on a crummy place like this don't leave me much spare after my bills, and now I got that hospital bill to pay on top of it all, then I lost money this month for being off work for that couple of days. I'm meant to go back next week for a check up, maybe have the stitches out but I don't think I can even afford that right now, might just have to look at it myself, done it for other people before so I guess it won't be that bad. So maybe in a few months I could afford something, see if I maybe get a raise or something."

"I got spare cash if you need it for your doctors bills and maybe I can help you out some with the other stuff too, now I got a regular wage."

Leigh frowned a little. "Don't need your charity Tim."

"No, that ain't what I mean."

"Then tell me what you do mean," she replied, sounding a little exasperated now.

"Hell, I don't know, maybe it's about time I got a place of my own. I ain't a kid no more, I'm gonna be twenty-one in a few months so I don't need to still be living with my mother. Plus it might help convince Barnes that I'm taking this parole shit seriously, that I really have changed some." Tim looked away briefly, surprised with himself for making this suggestion. "I thought that you could maybe come stay with me instead, then you wouldn't have to keep this place."

"You mean we could maybe, sort of, have a place together?" Leigh asked, not turning to look at him as it hit her what he was actually suggesting, instead biting her lip as she ran the water into the sink while she tried not to smile too much. It wasn't exactly a grand romantic gesture, and he was definitely not sweeping her off her feet and proposing or anything. Just offering up a practical sounding solution to his own problems that happened to include her. But she would take it, because realistically she knew that she'd be a fool to expect Tim to act in any other way.

"Well, yeah, I guess. Kind of makes sense, the amount of time we spend together?"

"Yeah, maybe." Turning off the taps, Leigh turned to face him as she continued trying to sound like it was no big deal to her either. "Only what about Angela, and Curly? Thought you wanted to stay home 'cause of them?"

"I did, but being there it's pretty obvious they don't need me, least not all the time, and maybe I got to start doing what's right for me now as well as looking out for them, make things right for the future. They managed pretty well for the year and a half I wasn't there didn't they? And it wouldn't be like I'd be going far. I'd still be around if they did need me."

"And it ain't too soon? We haven't been back together that long yet, what if you change your mind about me? I don't want you doing nothing you'll regret."

"No, it ain't too soon. Reckon the only thing I regret is that I fucked it all up before. If I hadn't done that then maybe we'd have been together all this time."

"I guess, suppose you just took me by surprise is all."

Look, you don't have to decide right now, only just say you'll think about it, alright?"

"Yeah, ok." Leigh leant across and kissed him. "I promise I'll think about it. Now how about you tell me what Wayne had to say for himself?"

* * *

><p>AN: Well I hope you liked it...?...I hope you think its believable from Tim, I gave it a lot of thought and I've got a whole load of reasoning worked out as to why I think he would suggest this, but won't bore you with it here! If you've got a couple of spare minutes then please let me know what you think as I really love hearing from you guys :) Thank you as always to everyone who's reading, I really appreciate that people are sticking with this.

Changes - the really rather wonderful David Bowie ;)


	18. Seen It All

**Seen It All**

Saturday 18th June 1967

It was late on Friday afternoon when Wayne had appeared outside the store where Tim and his boss were working on refitting the electrics. Tim felt somewhat reassured when he learnt Wayne had spoken with his contacts and arranged a time to sort things for the next day. He knew that Leigh had already made plans with Sylvia for Saturday afternoon so she'd be safely out of the way and happy that he was doing his own thing. He'd been deliberately sketchy when he'd told her what had happened in Charlie's the other evening, letting her believe that the two of them had talked things over and decided enough was enough, that they were calling it quits and finally putting their differences behind them.

And it was almost true, because after today was over he would actually be able to say that. He just had to make sure he got through this in one piece then hope that Wayne honoured the promises he had made.

So instead of the truth, Tim had told Leigh he was heading over with his brother to meet Darrel Curtis and a few of the other guys from the building site to play some pool and have a couple of beers, when in reality he was going to head further out through the back streets of town, towards the empty warehouse on the river bank. The only person who Tim had told exactly what was going down was Curly, and that was only because he knew he needed some kind of insurance in case it all went wrong, so that at least one person was aware of where he really was if he didn't make it back as expected.

Tim watched Leigh wave happily at him as she crossed the street towards the diner where she was meeting Sylvia, hoping that in a few hours things would be sorted once and for all and he could just move on with his life, concentrate solely on the good things rather than getting continually dragged down by his past.

Pulling over a couple of blocks from the warehouse, Tim turned to Curly, "I want you to take the car back, I'll walk the rest. Now go home and wait and if you've not heard from me by fourish then come looking."

"You really think there'll be trouble?"

"Hope not, but I'm relying on someone else's arrangements so it's out of my hands."

"Well, good luck," Curly called out as Tim shut the car door and strolled across the street.

Tim was more than an hour early as he reached the building but it didn't surprise him as he walked inside to find that Wayne and his brother were already there, in the large front room of the building that must have been the offices at some point, a couple of dusty desks and some broken chairs pushed back against the walls.

"Myers."

"Afternoon Shepard," Wayne greeted him while Pete just scowled. Even now a week later it was obvious to Tim how much of a mess Pete had been left in by his associates and it made him nervous about exactly what he was getting in to as he wondered whether they would be prepared to go with the deal Wayne had been trying to broker.

"Useful place you got here."

"Yeah well figured it was best to keep this meeting out of sight, last thing we need is the cops turning up or nothing. Least there ain't anyone around here to see us, no nosy neighbours to call them up."

"So is it still happening? What time exactly are you expecting them?"

"Yeah, I spoke to Dave again last night, it's still on. They are meant to get here around two."

"Well ok, how about you talk me through it again, make sure you haven't left out little details that I might need to know."

xxxxxx

"So you feeling better now honey? You know I was so worried about you last week when we couldn't find you, then at the hospital," Sylvia asked as she watched her friend playing with Matthew, balancing him on her knee while she picked at the food on her plate.

"Yeah, I'm good. It's real nice to see you both. So why don't you tell me all about the wedding, guess it must have been a good day? Bet Judith looked beautiful."

Sylvia talked for a while, before looking back at her friend, "You sure you're ok Leigh? You've hardly eaten anything and you seem a little distracted."

"I'm fine honest, just not had much appetite lately, guess it's these tablets I got from the hospital." She looked up, seeing the questioning look on Sylvia's face. "Honest Sylv, everything's real good," Leigh paused as she deliberated over whether to share anything more with her friend, "Me and Tim have been talking, we might get a place, together, sometime."

"Yeah? You know you don't have to? Don't go rushing into nothing you can't get out of just to keep him around. It's only been a month ain't it since you been seeing him again?"

"Yeah, I know that Sylv, only I'm not rushing anything because it wasn't my suggestion."

"Jesus, sure didn't expect you to say that," mumbled Sylvia, lost for words for once.

"Yeah, thought you might say that. Anyways, its only talk so I guess he might still change his mind. You ready to go? What d'you need to get?"

"More clothes for my boy, he's growing out of everything again," Sylvia replied with a smile, as she took her son back into her arms, "Come on, let's go."

"Ok, I'll just go say goodbye to Joe and I'll be right with you, I'll see you outside."

A couple of minutes later Leigh walked back across the diner from the kitchen, almost walking into the man crossing the room.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she exclaimed, surprised.

"No problem." He looked down at the girl, "So how's things Miss O'Connell? Managed to keep yourself out of trouble this week?"

Looking up she realised with a start that it was the detective from the previous weekend.

"Oh, hello there, Mr Monroe. Yes I'm fine, thank you."

"Well, you just think about what you're doing and try to keep out of any bother, don't want to see you down the station again any time soon."

"Um, yes sir."

"And that boyfriend of yours, he behaving too?"

"Yeah, he is."

"You seen anything of Mr Myers, there's a nasty rumour going round his brother came back to town?"

"Why would I have seen them? We ain't exactly on friendly terms no more, I don't know anything, honest. Please, my friend's waiting outside, I gotta go." Leigh hurried away, unsettled by the unexpected encounter, quickly catching up to Sylvia.

"Jesus, who was that old perv? He trying to chat you up or something?"

"What? Oh, no, he's just that policeman who I spoke to last weekend."

"Dammit Leigh, you deserve better than that, getting hassled by cops when you're out. You know it wouldn't happen if you were with anyone else? If you found someone who'd treat you good?"

"Please don't give me a hard time Sylvia, it's getting real old listening to you bitch about him all the time and you know something, he treats me just fine ok? So how about you just be happy for me? I always supported you, whatever you did, so please just trust me to know my own mind, ok?"

Sylvia looked surprised at her friend's outburst, "Yeah, sorry honey." She leant over and hugged her friend, "Just ignore me, ok? Guess I'm just missing Mike too much lately, just seems to be taking forever for his tour to end, Matty ain't gonna even know him."

"Oh Sylv, I'm sorry, always talking about myself like you don't got your own problems. You had any letters lately?"

Sylvia nodded, before Leigh continued,"Well you know how much he loves you both. And it'll be alright once he's back, kids are tough, after a few weeks Matty won't even remember his daddy was gone."

Sylvia wiped at her eyes, "Yeah, I know, don't make it any easier though. Come on, let's get out of here and keep me busy before I start really crying."

xxxxxx

Tim watched the four men enter the warehouse, sizing them up. He recognised the main guy, Andrew McKenna. Then beside him was that creep Dave who'd had his hands all over Leigh the last weekend, while the other two seemed to just be there for back up, a couple of tough looking guys with prison tattoos on their forearms. The plan was for Wayne to do the talking, make the offers on how to settle things. Tim wasn't entirely sure why he was there, other than the fact that Pete was next to useless for offering his brother any back up, and he figured it probably amused Wayne to put him in this tight spot, where things weren't in his control. If there was any trouble he was going to enjoy settling things with Dave in person, but for now he was willing to stick with Wayne's plan.

Tim tried to listen to the conversation between Wayne and the others, only their voices were too low, then Pete started mumbling at him too,

"So how's the girl doing?"

"What?" he snapped.

"Leigh, how's she doing?"

"Just fine, without you."

"Look, just tell her I never sent Fry after her."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Just tell her, ok?"

Tim was only interested in getting Pete to shut up now, "Yeah, alright, now how about you keep quiet, I want to hear how Wayne's doing." Glancing across the room Tim's uneasiness increased. Wayne and Mack were off to one side and Wayne was looking harassed and his body language was tense. Tim watched as Wayne offered the older man a roll of notes, his concerns increasing as Mack refused to take it, waving Wayne away before he walked back to Dave.

Not wanting to wait any longer, Tim crossed the room to Wayne. "What in hell's going on Myers? Thought you had it all under control."

"Seems they got other ideas, apparently he wants to speak to Pete some," Wayne replied as he beckoned his brother over to join them. "Don't like it Shepard, there's something off, keep alert 'cause Pete's a damned mess, he's barely got any idea who he is right now, let alone being able to handle what's going on."

Tim watched as the two men turned back towards them.

"So Pete, your brother here says your real sorry for screwing us over like that?"

Pete ran his hand through his hair, nodding slightly as McKenna turned his gaze to Tim.

"And you? You were fucking up his sales, meaning we lost money?"

Tim shrugged, knowing he couldn't show weakness to these guys or he'd never make it out of there unscathed. "Sorry, but it wasn't nothing personal, your business arrangement with Pete was just a casualty of an ongoing dispute I had going on with these boys."

"Yet you're here with them now?"

"Wayne here assured me our issues are settled, at least for the time being. Guess I wanted to come along and make sure of that for myself."

Dave laughed. "Wish things were that easy from our point of view. See Wayne seems to think that if he pays us off for what Pete lost from the deals gone wrong with a little sweetener on top then everything'll be straightened out."

"Sounds fair."

"Trouble is, it ain't that simple, you see we got a reputation to keep up. So someone has to pay."

xxxxxx

Back across town Leigh waited patiently whilst Sylvia looked at all the clothes for Matthew, before moving on to the women's wear department. "Aren't you gonna get something? Nothing new for work or anything?"

"Nah, I'm a bit tight for cash right now, but don't rush on my account, it's just nice being here with you doing something fun. Why don't you let me take Matthew if you want to go try some things on?"

"Yeah, ok, I wont be long."

After a couple of minutes waiting Matthew was getting bored, and getting more vocal about it, so Leigh headed towards the store window. They were on the first floor and kneeling down next to the stroller she pointed out trucks and lorries and buses, watching the people rushing about. Women with shopping bags, some with friends, some with small children holding their hands. A few guys trailing miserably behind. High school kids messing around outside the drugstore. A kid she recognised with an armful of books, the smart kid who was Darrel Curtis' kid brother, with Darrel right next to him. So if Darrel was in the middle of town how could Tim be meeting him? She felt momentarily sick as she tried to remember what Tim had said to her. He'd told her he was meeting Curtis and his work buddies. Or maybe it he had said Darrel's work buddies, maybe he had just included his name because he was the only one of that crowd she knew and he meant it was just a group of guys he was meeting rather than anyone specific.

"Hey, sorry I was so long, let's go pay then we can head home."

"Oh sure." Leigh replied distracted. Yes, she decided, she had just got confused, everything was ok, Tim was fine.

xxxxxx

"Now you, you're just not really anything to do with it, so it'd be pretty pointless taking you out, wouldn't send the message we were aiming for, so it looks like you're up again Pete." Mack laughed as he stepped closer to Pete, an arm around his shoulders. Tim could see Pete was trying desperately not to look scared, but it was obvious to everyone that he was terrified, and not really following what was happening. "You know Pete, it all started so well, I had high hopes for you being better than your brother."

Tim caught Wayne's eye as he quickly glanced around the room, it was obvious he wasn't going to get out of there without some kind of fight now, so he just tried to keep his calm, be ready for it when it came. They were outnumbered, and the state Pete was in it might just as well be two against four. But then he'd had worse odds before, in McAlester, and he was still here, had survived it all somehow, and he was pretty sure he would today, especially now he had a reason to. Mack continued to speak, causing him to return his focus to the middle of the room.

"See Wayne was going great until he got arrested, but you managed to avoid that. You seemed like you were doing so much better, until you lost your focus, let some second-rate hood straight out of McAlester - no offence," Mack said, glancing across at Tim with a malicious smile.

"Whatever, Mack" Tim shrugged in response, he'd been called a hell of a lot worse things than that.

"As I was saying you let some second-rate hood get the better of you. So you got to pay Pete, that's just the way it is."

As he stopped speaking the older man stepped away and Tim saw Pete make the mistake of relaxing slightly, just before the punch caught him right in the face. With that the fight was on and Wayne quickly tried to intervene, only for the two heavies to start laying into him, before one of them turned and hit out at Tim too. So much for keeping out of it he thought as he ended up in the fray, satisfied when he managed to lay at least a couple of decent punches of Dave. Looking round he realised McKenna had stepped back a little from the fight, was letting the other three handle it for him. He saw Pete stumble to the ground and not get up, before he was left reeling from an unexpected punch to the side of his head from one of the others that he hadn't seen approaching.

Shaking himself from the blow, Tim looked around and realised the fighting had stopped as abruptly as it had started. The two nameless guys had dragged Pete up off the floor and he stood defeated between them, blood pouring from his face, while Mack looked on and Dave stood at his side pointing his gun at Pete.

"Alright then Myers, I'll take your money now."

He held his hand out to Wayne who scrabbled in his pocket pulling out the bundle of notes and handing them over.

"Pleasure doing business with you boys, and remember if any of you so much as looks at anything we're involved in then I won't be so lenient next time."

The four of them started to walk away before pausing just inside the door. "Ok Dave, give him a little something to remember us by."

"But..." exclaimed Wayne as Dave raised the gun again, Wayne pushing his brother in the side so he stumbled sideways as the shot rang out, the bullet catching him in the arm rather than the chest. Tim watched Mack laughing as he turned, raising his hand in a half wave then walked out the door while Wayne crouched down at his brother's side. "Shepard, give me a hand will ya?"

"He hurt bad?"

"Bad enough. Think the bullet only got him in the arm, pretty superficial but still bleeding like a pig though. I got to get him out of here. Will you help me?"

Tim sighed, it was about the last thing he wanted to do, in fact he would be happy never to see either of the Myers brothers again, because the afternoon's fiasco had made him sure of the direction he wanted his life to take from now on. But if things were different and it was him there with Curly, he hoped someone would help him out.

"Yeah ok, but after this were even, in fact more than even - you'll owe me."

Wayne nodded as they dragged Pete up off the floor. "Ok, now let's get him out of here, his car's not too far away."

* * *

><p>AN: Well thanks as always for reading, reviewing etc up to now, and I hope you liked this latest chapter too? I think there's maybe another two or three chapters to go now... Seen it All - Jake Bugg


	19. Let's Start Again

**Let's Start Again**

The sound of the key in the door lock made Leigh jump, a momentary chill passing over her before she realised it must just be Tim. He was the only other person with a key, so it had to be him, even though she wasn't expecting him back for another couple of hours at least. Since the incident with Pete, Tim had convinced her it was a good idea to lock up if she was there alone but the fear was still there until she saw it really was Tim, striding hurriedly through the apartment. Only the feeling of relief was quickly replaced by confusion and panic when he barely acknowledged her, instead heading straight through towards the bathroom while Wayne followed him in, practically dragging his brother with him before dropping Pete down on to the kitchen chair.

"What's going on?" she demanded, chasing down the hall after Tim, watching bewildered as he rummaged through the bathroom cabinet and noticing the blood on his clothes for the first time. "Tim? What's happened?"

"Nothing, you got any bandages or anything?"

"Yeah, there's a box with a few things in the bedroom, why? Are you hurt?" she said as she crossed the hall into the other room.

"I'm fine, just get me the gear, Leigh."

"What the hell has been going on then?" she asked, pulling open the drawer of her dresser and lifting out the first aid box. "I'm guessing from the state of him, and the fact your ok, that this is for Pete?"

Tim looked away, nodding, unable to look her in the eye.

"So what happened? What did you do to him?"

"Nothing, it wasn't me, I didn't do nothing to him, its complicated."

"Yeah? Well I got plenty of time, so how about you tell me?" Leigh persisted, standing half in his way.

"I made an agreement with Wayne that was meant to sort things, once and for all, except the other people involved decided a beating wasn't enough so one of them shot Pete. I'm sorry we ended up here alright? Only he was in a mess and yours was the nearest place. You don't have to go near him if you don't want to. Just stay in here and keep out of it, I'll get rid of them as soon as possible, I promise."

Tim grabbed the box from her hands, kissing her quickly on the forehead as he walked out the room.

Within a couple of minutes though, Leigh knew she couldn't just stay hiding in the other room. Needing to see what was happening she headed back towards the kitchen and peered anxiously round the door, where she found Wayne trying his best to clean Pete up and patch up his assorted wounds as Tim looked on. Wayne looked round as he heard her approach.

"Seeing as your here then Leigh, can you take a look at him? Do you reckon just a dressing will hold on his arm?" He quickly pulled away the cloth he had pressed over it to try to slow the bleeding for a couple of seconds so she could see it a little better.

Nervously she approached Pete, relieved that he was so out of it. Looking at him from over Tim's shoulder she realised his arm was a mess, the wound like nothing she'd seen before. "How in hell would I know? I ain't never even seen anyone who's been shot before. Only ever fixed up the guys from the boxing club or after a fist fight. If you're that worried why don't you take him to the hospital?"

"Come on Leigh, you know that's not gonna happen," Tim said, "don't need the cops all over us again, and they will be, once the gunshot wound gets spotted, hospital's bound to report it."

Leigh shook her head, stepping back away from them. "Why in hell do you think I'd do one thing to help him, after everything that's happened? Why should I even care what happens to him?"

Tim stood up, turning her to face him, his hands on her forearms. "Please? Look I know this ain't easy for you, but the quicker he's fixed up, the quicker he's out of our lives for good, ok? We got a deal," Tim glanced over his shoulder, "ain't that right Wayne?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Begrudgingly, Leigh agreed. "Yeah, ok, I'll help you. But only if it means you two leave sooner." She sat down in the chair which Tim had vacated, taking a closer look at Pete who turned his head slightly to watch her. Not that he could see an awful lot as both eyes were now nearly closed shut from the bruising and swelling to his face. As she worked Wayne joined Tim across the room, watching and talking a little.

"Hey there sweetheart," Pete said as she pressed the gauze down tightly against the wound and began bandaging it, "sure is nice of you to help me out. You been missing me?"

"What do you think? If it was down to me you'd still be out on the street, only I didn't exactly get a lot of choice over them bringing you here."

Pete laughed a little as best he could through the pain, "Well, you're a whole lot gentler than Wayne was anyways, so thank you, I appreciate it. You still sure you made a good choice, going for Shepard? He ain't so much different from me at the end of the day is he?"

"Shows how much you know," she snapped as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair, wanting to put some distance between the two of them, before she turned to Tim trying to get his attention. "I've about done all I can do, so can you get him the hell out of here?"

xxxxxx

The brothers had finally left and Leigh was cleaning up the chaos in her kitchen while Tim went to tidy himself up, when there was a knock at the door followed by someone walking in.

"Oh hey there Leigh, is Tim around?"

Recognising the voice as Curly she carried on with her cleaning, not looking up as she replied. "Yeah, in the shower."

"Oh, ok. Only I just need to check in with him, didn't hear from him earlier like I was supposed to and there was no sign of him where I left him."

"Yeah, well, like I said he's in the shower. You can wait for him if you like." She turned away from Curly, washing her hands at the sink.

"Is everything alright?" Curly asked, even though it was obvious it wasn't, from her abrupt words and the stressed look on her face.

"You tell me, I'd be the last to know. I'm pretty sure you know more than me about what's been going on today if you're coming round here checking up on him." Hearing Tim approaching, Leigh looked up, "I got things to do, I'll see you later Curly," then left the room, blanking Tim as she walked straight past him before shutting herself in the bedroom without another word to either of them.

"Jesus Tim, what have you done to piss her off now? And what the hell happened to you?" Curly asked, grinning at his brother as he saw he was looking a little worse for wear.

"Well the good news is my deal still holds with Myers, there'll be no more trouble from either of them."

"And the bad news?"

"That fucker McKenna decided he wanted a bullet put in Pete."

"What's so bad about that?"

"We ended up bringing him here to patch him up some. It was the nearest place. Only Leigh was home."

"And not exactly thrilled to see him I'm guessing?"

"Yeah, well, can't say I can blame her. Told her I was going out drinking with the work crowd. Only instead I turn up here with her no good ex in tow after obviously being caught up in some kind of fight."

"But you're ok?"

"Oh yeah, just swell."

Curly smiled. "Well I guess you can do without me hanging around then. Now I know you're in one piece, I'll leave you to it."

"Thanks kid, you bring the car back over?"

"Yeah." Curly held up the keys, tossing them over to Tim.

"You want me to drop you back home?"

"Nah, it's fine, gonna walk over to Buck's, got a girl I want to meet later."

"Ok, well good luck."

"Yeah, you too," said Curly with a grin as he stepped out the door.

Tim walked back up the short hallway, to the bedroom.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Leigh stood up, crossing the room to stand in front of Tim, her expression serious and her arms folded.

"Your day was good? Is everything alright with Sylvia and the kid?"

Leigh looked at him incredulously. "I can't believe you sometimes Tim, standing there asking me that like nothing's happened. Yeah, they're all good. Was all going great until I ran into that cop earlier. Then to top it off you go and bring them two here, into my home. What the hell were you thinking?"

"What cop?"

"The one who I seen last week, was just asking me shit in the diner, sure made me feel real good about myself."

"Did he give you grief? You alright?"

"Yeah, was just embarrassing I guess, being quizzed in front of everyone. I think I've had enough of all this crap for one day, could do with a break from it all."

"God, I'm sorry it all ended up like it did, I didn't do it just for the hell of it."

"Like I said, I've had enough for one day Tim, so how about we just leave it? Maybe you should just go home."

"You don't want me to stay?"

"Not tonight. Reckon I could do with a bit of space before I get to listen to you tell me the latest bullshit excuses for why you been lying to me this time around."

"Leigh, listen, there really is a good reason for it happening like this, I can explain it all."

"Yeah, you always can, that's the problem. Why don't you just go away before I say something I regret? Maybe I'll feel like hearing your stories tomorrow."

"Dammit babe, don't be like this..." He went to step closer to her, put his arm around her but she evaded his touch.

"For Christ sake Tim, can you not just do what I'm asking you, just once?" She was almost yelling now, "Please can you just leave me alone?"

Defeated, he moved away. "Yeah, ok, but just for tonight. I'm coming back, first thing in the morning. Just remember, whatever you think I did, I did because I had to, because I wanted to make things right."

Tim watched her for a few seconds, but she remained quiet, unrelenting in her request for him to leave so in the end he walked quickly out the room, slamming the front door behind him in frustration before storming down the steps towards the car.

xxxxxx

Tim was restless, unable to sleep. He had thought about going out to a bar, but decided it was a bad idea. The only place he wanted to go was back to Leigh and he had nearly left the house twice during the course of the evening, stopping himself at the last minute as he deliberated over whether or not it was a good idea, or whether he'd push her over the edge into sending him away for good if he hassled her too soon.

Only now it was nearly one in the morning and there was still no prospect of getting any sleep, just a nagging doubt that by trying to fix things for good he'd only succeeded in screwing everything up. Unwilling to sit there staring at the walls and trying not to drive himself crazy for another six or seven or eight hours until a decent time in the morning, Tim headed out the house. It was a mild night and initially he wandered aimlessly around the neighbourhood, but he soon found himself heading across town towards her. The streets were quiet, just a few cars still on the roads, most houses were in darkness and pretty much all the bars had shut by now too. Even Charlie's place was quiet by the time he reached Leigh's street almost an hour after leaving home.

Tim wondered if she was sleeping, or whether she was in the same mess as he was. Then he remembered he still had her spare keys in his jeans pocket. He couldn't leave it now, was uncomfortable with the thought she was mad at him still, so he turned into the alley and began climbing the steps, coming to an abrupt halt as he realised there was someone sat outside the front door on the top step, smiling a little as he saw it was Leigh, a cigarette in one hand and a glass in the other.

"Hey," he said softly, sinking down beside Leigh, "how come?"

"It's a nice night, just wanted a smoke, and some air," she replied, rubbing her forehead tiredly with the palm of her hand as she held the cigarette between her forefingers, "You want one?" She reached behind and picked up a cigarette packet, holding it out to him.

"Sure." As he lit the cigarette Tim noticed her pick up a bottle and refill the glass. "You been drinking all night babe?"

Leigh shrugged, "Does it matter?"

"What you drinking?"

"Dunno, some cheap crappy rum that Two-Bit left here one time months ago, only thing I could find in the cupboard. You want some?" she asked, tilting the bottle towards him as she took a sip from her glass.

"No thanks."

"Don't blame you, tastes terrible."

"You sure it's a good idea to have another if it's that bad?"

"Yeah, well, probably not but what the hell. Was just hoping it might help me some."

"Help you with what?"

"Forgetting how shit my life is, make everything hurt a little less, maybe take my mind of everything long enough to get some sleep at some point."

"And did it work?"

"Not so far." Leigh leant her head against the railings to the side of her. "Why have you come back here tonight Tim?"

"Couldn't sleep, was walking and found myself back here."

"Yeah, that the only reason?"

"Hell, you know it ain't. I couldn't stand the thought of you being here alone, hating me. I just wanted a chance to explain things to you properly."

"Alright then, I'm listening now, so how about you tell me everything."

"Ok." Tim began speaking, talking her through the events of the previous afternoon, sliding an arm around her shoulders as he spoke.

"Jesus, I don't hate you Tim." She moved closer to him, resting her head against his shoulder and feeling a little more relaxed now her earlier anger had faded and the drink was kicking in.

"You sure? Kind of sounded like you did this afternoon."

"Yeah, well, I won't deny I was real mad, when you turned up here and it was obvious you had told me a whole load of crap. Then on top of all that it really freaked me out seeing Pete again, especially him being with you. But I get why you did it now, why you didn't tell me." She looked up at him, "You really think it's all over now, that he won't give us any more trouble? And you're not still looking to get even with him no more?"

"It's over, it's done. I'm sorry I ever dragged you into this mess, maybe we should try to put all this crap behind us and start over?"

Leigh nodded, before leaning back into him, her eyes starting to close, "Sure, that sounds real good."

"Yeah, it does. And I know things feel bad sometimes, but it won't last forever. Now how about I help you to bed, before you fall asleep out here on me?"

"Yeah ok." Leigh stood up a little unsteadily, holding on to Tim as she tried to keep her balance. "So long as you'll stay with me?"

"As long as you want me, I'll be around, I promise."

* * *

><p>AN: Well, the story is nearly over (I've pretty much sorted the ending now and there'll just be one more chapter to come after this one, am hoping to put it up sometime in the next week once I've tweaked it a bit more). So huge thanks again to everyone reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter?

Lets Start Again - Fyfe Dangerfield.


	20. Don't Look Back into the Sun

**Don't Look Back into the Sun**

Saturday 5th August 1967

"You had a good night darling?" Tim asked, handing Leigh a drink as he sat next to her at the bar in Buck's.

"Yeah, it's been fun, although I'll be glad to get home," she said, smiling at him, "It's been kind of a long day."

"Sure has been busy, but worth it?"

"Definitely, although I'm real glad it's all done now."

"Me too."

They had spent the morning moving the last of Leigh's things out of her apartment with the help of Nick and Curly. Tim had managed to find a place back in the neighbourhood he'd always lived in, only a couple of streets from where Leigh had used to live with her father. It was only small, from the outside it looked pretty run down and in need of repairs like most homes on their side of town, but was still a little bigger than the apartment had been, and the rent was just about affordable on his wage. Tim had been there for a few weeks already and she'd stayed with him more often than not, but as of today she was taking him up on the offer of living there properly, actually moving in, had returned her keys to Charlie after they'd carried the last boxes down to the car. The afternoon had flown by as she'd sorted her things, unpacking the few boxes she'd brought with her and putting her own touch on the place. Then because Tim had ideas on making it a special kind of weekend all round he'd taken her out to see a movie, before stopping for drinks on their way home.

Since all the trouble in June their lives had quietened down considerably, they hadn't had any more problems with the River Kings, or seen anything of the others, McKenna and his guys. From what Tim could gather, Wayne had taken Pete to their fathers' place just outside of town where he worked on the oil fields, before he'd returned to his army base, and since then there had been no sign of either of them, while the remaining gang members were more interested in fighting things out between themselves to take control than they were in resurrecting old grudges.

They had still sat there talking and laughing when Ryan cut through the crowd towards them.

"Hey Shepard, you got a minute?"

"What d'you want Lang? I'm kinda busy here," Tim replied wearily. He had no wish to talk to Ryan, and was almost regretting having stopped off on the bar because right now all he wanted to do was take his girl back to their place, spend their first official night there together, just the two of them, and do the last, most important, thing he had planned to make it special for her.

"Just I got this real sweet job, wanted to run it by you."

"Not interested Ryan."

"Two minutes of your time Tim, that's all I'm asking."

Tim glanced across at Leigh. He'd gradually taken less interest in anything going on with the gang, so that now it was pretty much the Shepard gang in name only, aside from Curly's involvement, while Ryan had naturally slid into organising things again in Tim's absence. "Yeah, ok. Can you give me a minute babe?"

"Sure," Leigh said, wandering away to speak to other friends as Ryan explained it to Tim, how he'd been offered this great opportunity by some guys from out of town he'd been introduced to.

"Ain't interested Ryan, and if you involve Curly with this particular job in any way then I will personally come looking for you, understand?"

"But it's a dead cert to workout, make some cash, just hear me out and you'll see it's good."

"I don't doubt you've worked it all out Ryan, but how much do you actually know about these guys? I mean if the deals so sweet why are they handing it to you?"

"Just lack of manpower I guess."

"You do what you want, but like I said I'm not interested."

"Jesus Tim, what's your problem? It's a good deal."

"No problem, I just ain't into that shit no more, got better things to be doing with my time."

"What, like staying home so you don't get no trouble from her? What the hell happened to you? Never thought I'd see you being told what to do by a girl."

Tim knew Ryan was trying to goad him into a reaction, but he just wasn't interested, there were more important things on his mind tonight. "Think what you like Lang, but I still ain't interested. See you around." Turning from Ryan he spotted Leigh and joined her, slipping his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, let's get out of here."

As they headed back home, Tim glanced at the young woman by his side, positive he'd made the right choice. He could remember from when he was younger when other gang members and leaders had dropped out, choosing to sort their lives out and back then he'd always thought they were fools to give it up. Even two years ago when Nick had split from the gang he'd felt the same. But the time in McAlester, that time away from home, then all the trouble they'd had because of his own obsession with revenge had made him realise that none of that really mattered.

When he'd been younger he'd craved the power, the reputation that being the leader had brought him, and enjoyed it whilst he was in charge, and also he knew that he had been damn good at it all. But at the end of the day it really only impressed other hoods, and having a growing criminal record wasn't going to get him anywhere in life, except potentially locked up again, for even longer the next time around.

"Everything alright with Ryan?" Leigh asked, Tim noticing the hint of worry to her question.

"Yeah, told him I wasn't interested. I said I wasn't going to do that crap any more and I meant it."

xxxxxx

"It's real good to be here, first proper night in the new place, in our place," Leigh said smiling, as they closed the door behind them.

"Sure is." Tim kissed her, before he backed away abruptly, "What time is it? Is it after midnight yet?"

Leigh looked puzzled, " I don't know, I guess so."

Taking her hand, Tim led her to the bedroom then took a quick look at the alarm clock, double checking the time, it was a couple of minutes after half past twelve. "Happy birthday darling, I got you something."

Leigh watched as he opened the drawer of the bedside table, rummaging for something.

"Don't you want to wait and give it me in the morning, 'til it's properly my birthday and all?"

"No, I need to do this now, before I lose my nerve." He smiled as he handed her the small package.

Opening the gift, Leigh's eyes moved between it, and Tim, and back again, her expression filled with confusion and hope as he began to speak, desperate to fill the silence.

"Just wanted to get you something nice, to prove to you - and everyone else - that we're together, properly. Don't want no one saying shit about you just 'cause you moved in here." Jesus, he thought to himself, why was it so easy to get in a fight but so hard to say what he really wanted to say to the girl he was in love with. He ran his hand through his hair before starting up again. "Hell, I don't know, maybe one day we could make it something more permanent, if you want to?" Taking the box from her hands, he looked at her, desperate for a response now. "Jesus Leigh, will you say something please. Do you like it at least?"

A broad smile had crept across her face as Tim had been speaking, "Yes, I love it, and I love you, and yeah, that sounds real good."

**THE END**

* * *

><p>AN: Well! I had this written so didn't see the point in waiting to post it! It's finally the end, and I hope you've enjoyed reading the story? I hope the ending was believable - I wanted to give them a happy, more hopeful ending this time around, but it was definitely hard work getting there, because although he's older and grown up some from the book, I don't see that Tim's ever going to be a hearts and flowers 'grand romantic gesture' kind of guy :)

If you've read this far I'd love to know what you think, (loved it, hated it, enjoyed it a little?) so I would be incredibly grateful if you could take a few seconds to leave a review (or even just message me, if you prefer!), I love hearing from people so please feel free to comment (even if it's been a while since this has been finished).

'Don't Look Back into the Sun' is from The Libertines. All the chapter names are song titles which have a lyric/lyrics relevant to the chapter but after reading some forum posts I wasn't sure about including the actual lyrics due to the publishing/copyright rules. I have a list, so if you're interested in any more info on any of these just message me.

I expect you've all got you're own ideas on how Tim looks, but for me I picture him looking a lot like a younger harder version of Ed Ruscha in the '60's photo portrait taken by Dennis Hopper with the neon TV repair sign in the background...maybe Google it, see what you think...? Oh, and the cover art, it's a snapshot of the underside of London Bridge, taken from a boat on the Thames :)

So, once again, thank you so much for reading to the end, thank you to everyone who's reviewed (hopefully if you're a signed in reviewer you've received my pm's thanking you). Also, thank you to those people who have followed /favourited the story, it's nice to know that it's been of some interest to someone else as well as me!


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